The Wandering Sage
by Uraharaisgod
Summary: At the age of seven, Naruto could no longer take the mistreatment of the villagers, but running away from Konoha has unexpected results, as he happens upon a mysterious stranger, one who will shape his future into a new path.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello readers, this is a prototype test chapter to test a theory of mine. If it produces enough interest, I may continue it.**

**Basically, I had a theory that perhaps my stories generate limited interest because of the use of O.C's for main charecters, and therefore can use no charecter tags. As such, this chapter is a test in that the main focus will be Naruto in future chapters (and a romance with Ino in future chapters if I make it)**

**Just as a warning, the basic plot starter points are borrowed from FreeTheKyuubi's fanfic New Beginnings, New Fate. While the writing style and O.C, alongside several plot points are of my own work, the basic plot direction was borrowed from his work. While I have sent a message to him regarding permission to use it, the fact that he has yet to re-emerge on FF for nearly 2 years means the chance of reply are pretty low, so i'm continuing with it, but leaving a shoutout to him for having borrowed the plot points. If I continue, due to the vast difference between our O.C's, the influence on Naruto's development will be so different that our plots will diverge rather obviously, it is only the very start that will match.**

**Anyhow, read on and enjoy!**

**(P.S I have changed some minor plot points, most noticable that Kakashi was made aware of Naruto's heritage before he was born e.g. Minato told his pupil he was going to be a father. I'm just putting a warning out so as not to complicate things.)**

**DISCLAIMER: I in no way own anything to do with Naruto, other than the design for the O.C featured herein, that was my idea!**

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><p>The young child pushed through the bushes as he ran as fast as he could through the darkness, his mind fearful and desperate, his body too tired to even try crying out for help as he forced his already exhausted limbs to push forward, as fast as his small frame could carry him away from the vengeful shouts of his pursuers from far away, lights from their burning torches flickering in the darkness, enhancing the brown glow of the autumn leaves from the tree's about them as they searched for the target of their needless fury, even more enraged that he had escaped them this time. Then again, it wasn't like crying for help would stop them, or draw others to protect the child anyway, for it was the villagers themselves that hunted for him.<p>

It was always like this, every time the year swung around to this day, they hunted for him. The young boy could never understand why they did this, even when it wasn't this day, the villagers always looked at him with thinly veiled disgust and hatred, so much so that the boy was afraid every night for his life, afraid that if he dared walk out of his door during the darkness, that they would come for him, and beat him once again, leaving him battered and crying in a heap of rubbish on the side of the street. He had learnt from an age that no child should that the only place he could be safe was behind the locked door of his tiny apartment, and so he rarely ventured from his dingy home unless it was absolutely necessary.

It was always like this, and he could never understand why. It was like the whole village hated him; when he had done nothing to earn their ire other than exist. But as horrible as they treated him, he would be safe enough if he never strayed upon the streets when night had fallen, if he hid himself in that apartment, curled up protectively on the bed that was in dire need of repair for all of its broken springs, it would give him some measure of protection from those villagers.

However, even the relative safety of the rundown, dingy apartment that he hid inside every night was not safe on this day, no, nowhere was safe on this day for him.

Not on the one day any child should be at their happiness, on October 10th, the day of Uzumaki Naruto's birthday.

No doubt the front door of that apartment had already been caved in earlier this day as the hunt for him began. However, this year, he hadn't stayed in that room, curled up in the corner as he waited in fear and weary resignation for them to come for him, hoping that by showing no resistance, the beating would at least have some restraint and he wouldn't have to suffer too many blows before those Ninja's arrived to stop them from going too far, but even as they forced the irate villagers, still spewing curses and insults at him to leave, many of them often looked down at him from those animal-like masks with thinly veiled disgust as they broke apart the mob that had come for him, as if saving his life was what they had been forced to do by orders they could not willingly ignore.

No, Naruto had had enough. Earlier that day, he had decided he was going to run. At seven years old, the boy had chosen to run away from home, perhaps forever. He needed to get away from this life, where he lived in neglect and always in the baleful stares of the other villagers. He had taken what few things he owned from that dingy apartment and packed them in an old rucksack which was now slung haphazardly on his back.

For the rest of that day, he had watched the guards at the front gates of the village, waiting and watching for the change in patrol. He hadn't been noticed while he watched, years of learning how to avoid the villagers attentions paying off as he stayed out of the ninja guard's perception. When his chance came, when the guards greeted one another as the first group was relieved by the second, he had ran. At first, he thought the guards may have seen him as he got passed the gate, but even if they had, they must have ignored him, for it had been almost a full half hour before the irate villagers had realised the child had escaped their grasp, and started pursuit for their target.

As he continued to run, the angry shouts of the villagers fading into the distance, now unnoticeable behind the heaving of his lungs as he desperately tried to draw breath, the young child was relieved as he had escaped unnoticed. However, his tired run was cut short, a branch snagging his sandal, sending the boy tumbling head over heels until he smashed headfirst into a solid tree trunk. As blood started to pour from the wound, the boy saw stars before his eyes, realising dimly that it hurt as the darkness engulfed him.

Nearby, amongst the treetops, a shadow seemed to let out a sigh, giving away the presence of the man hidden within the darkness, looking down at the child from behind its mask, a shock of silver hair emerging from above the dog mask as the ninja looked down at the child from his single visible eye with a concerned gaze.

With a small gust of breeze, the man vanished from the treetops, instantly appearing beside the unconscious child. After a quick once over, he realised the child's injury wasn't severe, it was just exhaustion, coupled with the collision that had caused Naruto to lose consciousness. As the ninja stood straight once more, his gaze turned towards the slight light that trembled in the distance. With some relief, he gauged that the light was decreasing, obviously the villagers had started searching in the wrong direction, and it wouldn't be much longer until they gave up their search and returned to the village.

To this single eyed ninja, it was a duty that he often chose to carry out, to search for the child and watch over him on this day. It was a duty he often carried out, but one he was not authorized to do. Many years before, only days after the birth of the child, Hatake Kakashi had stood before the village elders, demanding the rights to become the guardian of the child, the son of his late mentor, but the village elders had chosen otherwise, overruling his honest wish, even though the Hokage had spoken in his support, banning him from even seeing the boy outside of official missions.

To the silver haired man, it was his own shame that he could not even guard the child from the villagers, for without authorization, he couldn't even intervene if the boy was attacked, the best he could do, year after year, was alert the Hokage the instant the boy seemed in danger. But this year was different, the boy had chosen to run from the villagers, and Kakashi had felt no need to stop him. It had been a simple matter to cause a diversion when the boy had ran for freedom, a single smoke bomb had seen to the guard's attention as the boy had run through the gate.

He knew there was going to be no way to hide this from the Hokage, and he would face punishment for this act, but he couldn't let the child of his mentor suffer any more. Even now, the ninja reached behind his head, for the knot that held his Hitai-ite in place, the symbol of his allegiance to Konoha, hoping that his long gone father would forgive him for what he was about to do for the child's sake.

But a rustle nearby stayed his hands, his mask turning rapidly as he sought the disturbance. As a precautionary measure, the ninja drew a kunai from the pouch at his waist, melding into the shadows as he awaited whatever came.

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><p>"<em>I'm sorry Jii-san, but I can't take it anymore!"<em> Naruto cried out in his dream, staring up at the old man at his desk, in the familiar room. Although the room was indistinct, seemingly immaterial as the boy could not remember the details, the Hokage was almost as perfect as he was in life, the large red and white hat perched perfectly atop his head, the old, yet kindly face watching him, a pipe held in one gnarled hand as the man smiled down at him.

Even though the old man smiled at him in his dreams, the boy was rent emotionally. The old man had been one of the very few people who had always been kind to him. When he had been sad and alone, the man had taken the time to come down from his lofty office to his dingy apartment to visit him, even though he was the leader of their village. The old man had always smiled kindly, laughed at the young boys eager jokes, even at some of the pranks the child had pulled. He also took the boy out at times, taking the child to the Ichiraku Ramen stand, his favourite place in the whole world. The old man was like family to him, the only family he had ever had.

However, the old Hokage had been left behind, even now, the kind face started to disappear, just as the room broke up behind him. Naruto couldn't hold back his tears as he shouted after the vanishing man _"I promise I'll come back! I'll become really strong, and I'll come back! I won't give up on my dream to become the Hokage, I promise!"_

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><p>"I…pro…mise…" the child murmured slowly as he awoke. He felt the hot tears stream down his warm face as he tried to open his tired eyes. His head felt oddly fuzzy as he struggled to raise an arm to wipe the tears from his face, brushing the liquid away from the whisker like birthmarks. As he did this, he felt something strange under his fingers, cloth.<p>

"I wouldn't pull at that if I were you." A man's voice called softly from nearby, the accent strangely smooth and soft as whomever it was spoke. As the child struggled to turn and see who it was that spoke, he realised quickly he was somehow in a sleeping bag. It also seemed that he was in a small enclosure, lit brightly by the nearby campfire, the air warm and smelling distinctly of cooked fish. Across the fire, the boy's eye's slowly adjusted enough to the sudden light to see who was there.

Smiling softly, his eyes seemingly closed, a man sat leant against a tree, strangely dressed in pale blue robes, a rather strange choice for a person walking amidst woods, yet the robes seemed unmarred by dirt or grass, testament to the man's skill in picking his paths well amidst the rough brush. Around his shoulders fell medium length black hair, framing his slightly narrow face, which was unmarred by scars or marks. Across his lap rested a sheathed blade, the sheath the same pale blue as his robes, the guard strangely intricate as if the blade was a ceremonial sword rather than one for practical use. However, the worn material about the wrapped handle of the sword indicated it was a blade that had seen a lot of use.

Even as the boy watched, the man unfurled his legs, resting the sword now on the tree's as he made his way to the campfire, now adjusting the obviously cooking fish to make sure they cooked evenly. Even as he did this, his eyes remained seemingly closed, as if he could see even with that expression. "Are you hungry?" the man suddenly asked, startling Naruto out of his thoughts.

Before he could even ask, the loud rumbling that emitted from his stomach obviously gave the answer the man sought. The man's smile widened slightly in good humour as he replied "It seems so, but I'm afraid these won't be finished for a while longer." As he stood once more, brushing lightly at his robes, he turned once more to the boy, that warm smile comforting to the child. With deft movements, the man walked over, easily hopping over a wooden stump before seating himself on the stump's opposite side, facing Naruto who still lay in the blankets.

The man lightly laced his fingers, looking down at Naruto as he started "It surprised me to find one as young as you alone within the forest, since we have some time before the fish cooks, perhaps you could regale me as to how come you ended up here?"

Naruto shifted uneasily at the question, drawing his legs up from underneath the sheets before hugging his knees, looking downwards. It wasn't that he didn't trust the kind man, the man had obviously taken care of him, and bore him no ill will, the question truly just a curious one. However, even if he was nice and kind, the man would obviously take him back to the village if Naruto revealed he had run away, after all it was the responsible thing to do for any adult.

"I'm sorry if the question offends you somehow, I was just concerned as to how come I found a child alone. I know you were probably taught not to talk to strangers, and a wise choice it is, I shan't ask again unless you wish to tell me." The young man said softly, his smile still as kind as it was before as he made to get up from the seat atop the stump.

Naruto thought for a second that he may have offended the kind stranger, and quickly blurted out "No, wait! It's not that I don't trust you, after all you're a nice person, but… it's just that I don't want to go back, if I don't tell you where I came from, you can't take me back…"

The man's pencil thin eye brows rose when he heard these words, his smile faltering slightly in surprise as he frowned, before saying softly "That's a surprising thing to say… but there's no need for concern, if you don't wish to return, that will be your choice, and not one I shall interfere with."

"Eh?" Naruto said in surprise, unable to hide the dumb look that spread across his features as the stranger smiled anew, replying softly "Every person must learn on their own, be it from experience from mistakes or experience from successes. It is not mine, nor do I believe any others place to interfere unduly with another's path; I helped you out of concern for your wellbeing, since you were injured and unconscious. So long as you are of sound mind and sound body, the next path you travel down is completely up to you, be it the path of safety or of risk. So long as you can walk it with your head high, and look back at it upon its end and say you learnt from it, then it is the right path to walk."

"Earlier, I believe in your exhaustion, you tripped and hit a tree, correct?" The stranger asked the child. "What did you learn?"

Naruto could only look up dumbly at the man. The words he had spoken seemed to be important ones, but most of what he had said made little sense to his young mind. Now, he had been asked something about what he had learnt from hitting the tree, and only one answer came to his mind.

"It hurt."

The man's smile widened as he heard the words, before he softly replied "So, what does that tell you? What did you learn from knowing that hitting a tree with your head hurt?"

"Umm…not to hit a tree with my head again?"

"Exactly. You have learnt not to do it again. It hurt you, but hopefully by knowing this, you will aim to not do it again. You have learnt. In that same reason, you must learn whether or not by running away you made a right choice or a wrong, so I shall not interfere no matter what you tell me. I may advise you, but never force you; it shall be all up to you."

As the stranger finished speaking, his smile ever present alongside his strangely closed eyes, Naruto could only look up at him dumbly as he tried to digest what he had been told.

"Ah, it looks like the fish has finished cooking, what perfect timing." The stranger suddenly said, jumping up lightly with a strangely graceful movement, before crossing the clearing once more, humming a light tune as he knelt beside the cooking fish.

"Umm…who are you?" Naruto asked to the man's turned back as he tended to the food. The humming paused for a second, before the man replied softly "Who indeed? As of right now, I'm the man preparing your food. As of right now, you're the child hungrily awaiting the food. Once the food is cooked and the child's appetite sated, maybe we shall both know more, but until then, patience young child."

Naruto shook his head, ignoring the protests of his cramping stomach as he said energetically "I meant your name, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the man who will become the Hokage!" However, he realised he had said too much, but old habits were hard to break.

"Ah, so you must hail from Konoha? A very prosperous village indeed, although a place with many prejudiced values and grudges, it is warming to know that such a village can produce an honest, upstanding child like you, after all, lofty goals are the best for any child to have."

Naruto bristled slightly at the last part, before vehemently returning "It's not *lofty*, I will become the Hokage…when I go back that is…" the child's words petered out slightly as he remembered he had just ran from the village, his gaze falling back to his knees as he wrapped his arms around them tighter.

"So you do intend to return? That is good to hear, having a definite destination is reassuring, many people leave, saying they won't ever return, but that is a foolish path, I'm glad you have considered returning, and I said that your goal was *lofty*, that does not mean I think it unattainable." The stranger calmly replied in that soft voice.

"You think I can do it?" Naruto asked hopefully as he looked back up sharply. However, he quickly leaned back in surprise, having nearly knocked the plate the young man had brought out of his hands with his sudden movement.

The man smiled warmly still as he offered the plate a second time, replying "I think if any person can, I would believe a person as earnest as you can. Many people believe that the heights are unattainable, and never try, but it is those who believe they can make it are those who will."

Naruto couldn't help but smile brightly at the man's reassuring words as he quickly took the plate from the man's hands, before practically tearing into the fish. He was so busy with eating the fish with gusto that he failed to notice that the young man who sat back atop the stump, watching him with interest, did not hold a plate for himself, nor was there any more fish cooking in the fire for his meal.

Instead, he seemed to reach into his robes, taking a small packet from within before taking out what seemed to be a dried persimmon from within, contentedly eating some of those instead. Hardly a fitting meal, but Naruto hadn't realised that the man had only caught enough fish for one earlier, and had sacrificed his chance at a proper meal for the child.

As Naruto continued to eat, the man asked "Well, now your appetite is sated, perhaps you feel like sharing more? I have learnt your from Konoha, and you chose to leave, but why and what made you chose to leave is the ones I would like to know."

Naruto stopped eating, lowering the plate as he hung his head once more. The man didn't say a word, merely waiting patiently atop the stump, his fingers once again clasped as those seemingly closed eyes watched the boy.

"I…I just had to…get away from…from it all…" Naruto spoke hesitantly, quietly. That was about all he said for half a minute, but the stranger waited patiently, not pushing for him to go on, lest the child stopped. For a while, it was all silent, only broken by the crackling from the burning wood, until Naruto spoke once more.

"All of my life, as far as I can remember…the villagers have always hated me… they used to glare at me, insult me, refuse to let me in the stores…even beat me and kick me… nobody wanted to be friends with me…they even told their children to keep away from me so I was always alone…they would throw rocks, shout at me, curse me…sometimes the beatings were so bad I thought I might die, and even when those masked guys stopped them, they would glare at me too…I just couldn't take it anymore…I needed to get away…"

The stranger didn't even stir, his smile lost as he heard the young boys words, saw the painful, empty look in those eyes that had been shining so brilliantly and innocently only moments before. For a few more seconds, there was nothing but silence, before the man said softly "I can understand now why you wished to escape, but to be honest, I'm amazed that you wish to return, let alone become the Hokage, may I ask why?"

"To prove them all wrong!" Naruto suddenly declared back. The stranger's brows raised in surprise as he watched a fiery determination suddenly light within the boys eyes. Heatedly, the boy continued "I'll show them all, I'll become the greatest ninja that ever lived, and become the Hokage! I'll show them all I'm not some monster!"

Once again, the stranger was silent, before asking, even more softly than his usual tone "What will you do if they don't believe in you? What if they don't believe in you? Can you say you will still be able to lead them all as the Hokage without wavering in your duties?"

"I will!" Naruto declared confidently, steely determination ringing in his voice and burning intensely from those cerulean eyes.

Several seconds passed after that moment, before the man spoke once more.

"Kouta."

"Huh?" Naruto blurted out in surprise, not recognising the term the man had used.

"Kouta, my name is Kouta. It is perhaps a name not appropriate for me, but since I no longer bear any family name, I bear it with pride, but I do go by the more appropriate title of The Wandering Sage." The man said calmly

"Oh, so your name is Kouta? And *The Wandering Sage*? That's a cool name!" Naruto replied with a brilliant smile.

"Thank you, but it may prove troublesome to know me, for you have piqued my curiosity with your determination, and life tends to get rather exciting whenever Sage's are involved, even if it is merely a nickname, and not what I am." Kouta replied with a smile, confusing the child.

"As I was saying, I would like to offer the choice to travel with me."

The boy just gaped at him as Kouta continued saying "If you chose to accompany, I shall impart what knowledge I have to you, and train you in what ways I can. While I do not regard myself as a ninja, merely a traveller, what I can teach you will hopefully help you along your path to become the greatest ninja. You will also travel with me across the five nations, learning as much as wish about the cultures and individual nations. When you think you are ready, or if you find the wanderer's lifestyle too difficult or not suitable for you, I shall return you to Konoha whenever you so wish."

Kouta merely sat still after this declaration, curious as to whether the boy would wish to throw his lot in with him, or if the boy would choose otherwise. What he didn't expect was a blonde missile to the stomach as he was practically tackled off the stump, falling down to the grass as the child wrapped his arms around his midriff, shouting "THANK YOU!" again and again at the top of his lungs.

His surprise turned back to a gentle expression, his kind smile back on his lips as he laid a hand atop the blonde mess of hair around his midriff, saying "There's no need to thank me, but if you wish to follow me, you will need your rest, we rise early and you will need a clear mind to learn as we go."

With one more loud "Thank you!" the boy vanished at a surprising speed, diving into the bed that he had been resting in before and closing his eyes, as if he could force himself to sleep faster. Kouta smiled gently as he looked at the child, curious as to how the future would be with this excitable child as his student.

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><p>As the fire died down, a beautiful tune could be heard echoing around the campfire, slowly rising and falling as if the pure notes echoed the movements of the waves against the shore. Beside the boy, now resting peacefully with a smile across his features, the acclaimed Wandering Sage sat atop the wooden stump, a small wooden flute in his hands as he focused, playing the soft tune as if to lull the child to sleep restfully, his own features calm as he enjoyed his favourite pastime.<p>

As the moon rose in the night sky, the fire finally died down, plunging the encampment into darkness. Slowly, Kouta finished the tune on one more pure note, before carefully stowing the beautifully crafted flute into one of the packs about the fire. With this movement, he rose, calmly pushing his robes straight once more, before casting his eyes to the right, quietly calling out in his soft voice "So, how much longer do you plan to hide behind that tree before you reveal yourself? The child sleeps peacefully now, so it is time to settle whatever reason you have come."

With a soft breeze of air, a shadow emerged from the darkness, becoming solid once more as the ninja walked out, one eye watching the man carefully as he said "You're pretty good to have noticed my hiding place that easily."

"That is hardly praise, coming from one who deliberately let himself be noticed easily." Kouta replied softly, stepping away from the campfire and towards the man with the mask.

As the man came to a stop, Kakashi could finally appreciate the man before him in his wholeness. Although the impractical soft robes about the man's body at first made him look to be a commoner, the way he had walked had belayed Kouta, experienced movements with grace and finesse which would have put any dancing performer to shame

'Or martial artist' Kakashi thought dryly, wishing he had bothered to uncover his Sharingan before approaching the man. With a critical eye, he quickly evaluated the man's body. Once again, the robes made it difficult to judge, but Kakashi was willing to bet that the lean frame of the man, surprisingly tall at around 6 ft, was covered with perfectly sculpted muscles, well used to exertion at long times from a man who had lived a dangerous life despite the deceptively flawless appearance of the man's skin, no scar or mark marred the man's body, as if he had never faced a situation where he had been hurt in his life.

"If even half of what the child has told me is true, then I'm afraid I cannot let you take the child back to that village." Kouta said bluntly, his soft voice now unusually hard as his tone changed, those eyes still closed as before, but the silhouette now angled, as if giving his features a sharper, more dangerous look.

However, Kakashi shrugged, replying in a soft tone "I have no intention of doing so; my intentions were to guard him from the shadows until he was safe, and if there was no other option, to take him away myself."

"So that's why you were testing me earlier? I have to say you were thorough, it took quite some skill to dispel it all, that Genjutsu with the flock of giant eagles was particularly impressive, if a bit naïve to try shocking me into making a mistake." Kouta replied softly once more, his tense posture relaxing as he realised he wasn't facing an enemy.

"It's you who surprised me; I tried every single one I could think of, and none of them worked, you didn't even fall for the drunk man stumbling into the encampment, and I thought that one was pretty believable. Are you sure you're telling the truth when you said you're not a Ninja?" Kakashi replied in a more relaxed tone, crossing his arms as he leant against the nearby tree.

Kouta chuckled softly in reply, answering "One can know the techniques of a Ninja, yet not be one. I guess in a way, you may call me an *uninitiated* Ninja, same as the young child, but I did not receive the formal pre-initiation training of any village, everything I have learnt has been learnt through my travels across the five nations."

Kakashi nodded, but, with absolutely no warning and in complete silence, stabbed a Kunai forward, aiming at the Sage's heart…

And consequently coughed and gagged painfully, acutely aware of how the world had changed about him to look like the night sky, a single leaf falling down and blocking the view out of the single hole in his mask for his eye to see from, his mind going over what he had seen in that instant.

As his Kunai stabbed forward, the Sage had, rather than dodge, retreat or block, had moved into the attack, the Kunai barely missing his chest as Kouta had reached forward, one hand holding the extended arm in a vice grip, stopping Kakashi's movement as a second one grabbed onto the opposite shoulder. Moving in with fluent ease, he had thrown the ninja over his leg, softly to the floor. It would have been a light impact, but dint of bad luck placed a root from the nearby tree sticking out, and that impact on his spine had stunned him.

"Now now, I'm sure you said I passed your tests only a few seconds ago, was there any need for that?" Kouta said, his soft voice ringing from nearby with a strangely cheerful camaraderie despite having just narrowly avoided being stabbed. As the breeze blew the leaf from covering his mask, Kakashi looked up into the face of the still smiling man looking down at him, now offering a hand to lift him back up.

'Knew I should have used a Kage Bunshin…' Kakashi thought regretfully as he suddenly spun his legs rapidly, aiming to sweep the man from his feet. However, the Sage easily leapt over the movement, turning his jump into a graceful backflip as he moved away from any more counter attacks.

Tensing his stomach muscles, Kakashi flipped up from the floor himself, the Kunai swung about his fingertip via the hole in its handle once as he pointed the weapon towards his pack, sheathed the weapon by pushing it through the Kunai pack's opening. Having done so, Kakashi settled into a Taijutsu stance instead, clenching his fists up in front with a tight stance. Across the way, Kouta smiled amicably as he also settled into his own stance, an almost opposite of Kakashi's own, arms stretched wide to the back and front, with palms open in a wide standing stance that Kakashi couldn't recognise.

Once again Kakashi regretted his choice to not remove his mask as he eyed the Sage's stance warily, realising that he could have memorized the unique Taijutsu stance of the Sage if he had fought with the Sharingan. But it was too late now, some instinct warned him in the instant he would have been distracted to throw the mask aside, he would face instant defeat from the man before him. Instead, he closed the gap instantly with a kick to the ground, his right fist thrown forward at the Sage's smiling face.

With a pivot, Kouta brought his forward arm about to the attack, his wrist pivoting as his open palm almost *slapped* Kakashi's fist, sending the attack downward, Kakashi's arm following the movement due to the spiral motion of Kouta's arm as he brought the second palm forward, using the distance he had kept the second arm as momentum to strike faster, aiming to strike Kakashi's chest.

However, Kakashi blocked the lunge with his own left fist, using the armour on the reverse of his glove to deaden the blow, grabbing onto Kouta's first arm with his right arm, pinning it to his body as he aimed a kick at Kouta's forward leg, hoping to force him off balance for a throw.

The Sage predicted the move though, and rather than simply try to dodge, turned the movement into a counter-strike, his knee flying upward to smash into Kakashi's unguarded torso as the kick the Ninja sent missed its target. The Ninja ground his teeth slightly as he was forced to use a messy manoeuvre, falling backwards and pulling Kouta with him, barely managing to ram his own knee against the Sage's strike to stop it. Continuing the movement as he fell, Kakashi used the momentum in mid-fall to his advantage, lifting his other leg up to push at the Sage's body, performing an impressive aerial throw to send the Sage over his body and flying away.

As Kakashi kicked outwards, landing on his back as well, the extra momentum from his backwards fall, combined with the kick sent the Sage hurtling over Kakashi's body, where any normal person would have fallen uncontrollably and slammed onto the ground back first. However, it seemed Kouta had experience with this form of martial arts as well, easily correcting his fall in mid-air, curling his body inwards as he forced his legs down, landing hard on his feet instead but facing the wrong way to Kakashi, who quickly flipped up from the ground once more to close the distance.

Quickly spinning on the spot, his blue robes whipping at the air with the speed he moved, Kouta aimed a kick for the charging Ninja, but Kakashi ducked low, under the attack, swinging his fist for the opening. Leaning back at an almost impossible angle, the attack merely brushed against the Sage's robes, as he quickly grabbed the attacking arm with his own, completing his impossible lean by spinning about on one foot, disorientating the Ninja as he was now being pulled off balance.

It was a fast move, but one that could easily be recovered from, if it weren't for the very solid tree Kakashi was being pointed at, environment working against him for a second time as Kouta aimed to slam him off the tree.

Cursing quietly, Kakashi pushed a hand off the tree instead, bracing off it and giving him enough time to get a supporting leg down to stop what could have been a headfirst impact with the tree. But that had bought the Sage a second as well, and with it, he released Kakashi's arm, before grabbing onto the Ninja's uniform about his navel with one hand, and the opposite shoulder with his other.

In this strange, awkward pose, both combatants paused. Kakashi sighed irritably as he muttered "My loss." In the pose the Sage had him, Kouta had complete control over Kakashi's next move, anything he would have tried, Kouta could have countered by throwing him solidly into the tree. While it was a bit annoying that essentially the tree had won the short martial arts clash between the two for Kouta, it was also knowledge of the environment that Kouta had wisely used against Kakashi, so it was still his victory. Even as he thought this, he wondered if that root which he had landed on earlier had also been part of the mysterious stranger's strategy.

If the battle was one of pure Taijutsu, the Sage had easily won. While Kakashi could have used the Kawarimi no Jutsu to escape, he had already decided to test the Sage out with pure Taijutsu movements.

There was no doubt, despite his rather peaceful appearance, the man was a master of close range combat. While he was sure if he had used the Sharingan, he could have put up a better fight, he wasn't 100% sure if he could beat the calm man. He could also dispel Genjutsu with incredible ease, a rarity amongst ninja whom Kakashi had faced before, not even his strongest one had trapped the man effectively. He was dying to find out if the Sage could actually use jutsu, but that would make Naruto aware of his presence, and right now that was no longer necessary.

As the Sage released him, both men straightened back up, Kouta taking a step back to give Kakashi space to recover, that ever present smile upon his face, his breath smooth and even, as if this had been no exertion for him whatsoever.

As Kakashi brushed the stray leaves and grass off of his uniform, he muttered "Hatake Kakashi, when you return Naruto, that name may get you somewhere if you say you're a friend of mine to the gate guards…"

Kouta bowed slightly, before replying "Kouta, The Wandering Sage. You're a good man, Kakashi, I could tell from how you talk, and how you move in combat that, even though you have faults, your heart is a good one, I would be glad to be counted as amongst your acquaintances. If you were telling me the truth, you would have been willing to betray your village for the child's sake, a ninja that abandons a village may as well have forsaken their lives for how the world would view them, you are truly a better man than many."

Beneath his mask, Kakashi cocked an eyebrow, before asking "You don't see Missing Nin as automatically traitors?"

"If two people have opposing views, does that mean that one must be right, and one must be wrong? That one is good, and the other bad? Every man has that which they must do to follow what they believe is right; if it leads to conflict, then that is how it must be. As long as one's heart is pure in committing the act, then their actions are pure, even if it seems the wrong path to others, as long as you believe it is the right path, and you are driven by the right emotions, then it is the right path, no matter what the result will be."

Kakashi's lone eye widened at the speech, his thoughts going back to his own personal dogma, the words the Sage spoke fitted his own words, even if the situations were vastly different, his belief that those that abandoned their friends for the sake of a mission were greater scum than those who abandoned the mission for the sake of their friends fitted perfectly with the Sage's words of his own belief in human actions.

As Kouta turned to leave, he only, ever so quietly asked "…how much does Naruto know about what dwells within him?"

Kakashi's body almost rocked as he heard the words. With a quick movement, the kunai was back in his hand, his other hand ready to lift the ANBU mask and reveal his Sharingan, his voice barely a whisper as he asked "…How did you find this out? Compared to how you answer, I may be forced to take you down, now answer!"

Kouta turned slowly, taking no actions that may seem to be an offensive one, the smile on his face now sad as he answered.

"While there are many smarter than I, I pride myself on my perception as to such things. Today marks the 7th year since the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, the young boy looks about 7 years old. Coincidence perhaps, but during my travels, I have met several of this generations current Jinchuuriki, and as such, have noticed that they tend to share traits with the beast within them. Naruto has whisker shaped marks across his face, which I doubt can be explained as a genetic trait. Finally, that injury on his head healed at an almost inhumane speed, in fact he no longer needs to wear that bandage, but just in case he, like I suspect, doesn't know, I made him keep it on. Adding these together, I can surmise that he may be the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, but it was your response that confirmed it beyond a doubt."

"But…" Kouta said suddenly, his voice changing once more into the hard tone he had taken earlier, in fact now there was something dangerous in his voice as he spoke. "…if I am right, then this means that all the abuse he has suffered has been because of being that beast's container, because he, when he was nothing more than a babe, was forced against his will to become it's jailor! There is no excuse good enough as to why your village has dared let the child be so badly treated, for being the method to protect them from that monster! For the first time in many, many years, I am furious…! This Hokage of yours should have taken care of this boy, but instead he was cast out by society, beaten and abused, such a pure and honest hearted child like he was made suffer a stigmata he had no right to be labelled with! There is no excuse for any man, let alone the Hokage, to have failed so badly in his duty!"

As he spoke, he suddenly walked forward, grabbing Kakashi's uniform, ignoring the Kunai the ninja still held as he brought his face close to Kakashi's, almost whispering "Return to your village, and make sure that no one stops you from having an audience with Hiruzen. You tell him just exactly WHO will be caring for the boy, and tell him that I will return with the boy, and if he doesn't have a good enough explanation for what he has done and what he has failed to do when I arrive…"

At this, Kakashi's heart almost failed, the pure waves of rage and killing intent the man before him poured out threatened to crush him to the ground, his legs losing strength and no longer able to support him, the Kunai falling to the forest floor, the only reason he didn't follow was because Kouta held him up by his uniform.

With this, Kouta leaned in close, for the first time his eyes opening partially, revealing what would normally have been beautiful sky blue eyes, a rarity which many people would have killed to have been born with, but ones that seemed now to almost burn with rage and anger, drilling into Kakashi's own visage as Kouta stared deeply into the singular eye hole of his mask. With finality, the Sage whispered these last words.

"…He will answer to me!"

With this, the man released his grip on the Ninja's uniform. Kakashi barely managed to bring his limbs under control in time to save himself from dropping to the ground, but he was breathing hard, sweat pouring across his body underneath his clothes, his heart hammering in his chest.

'What is this man!' Kakashi marvelled as he tried to remember how to breath. Never once in his life had he felt such fear as the man had just inspired with merely his words. He felt like he had been killed numerous times just by the man's words. He felt such a difference between him and the man in robes, the gap between what they were truly capable of so wide that it may as well have been a Kage itself who stood before him.

With that, Kouta took a deep breath, as if to re-centre himself. After a few seconds, that smile returned once more to his face, as if to wash away the anger that had momentarily been released with that peacefulness that he had shown before. Almost apologetically, he lowered himself down beside the ninja, helping the silver haired man back to his feet as he said once more in that soft voice "Sorry, but when I get emotional, I don't quite know how to hold them in check, I'm sorry if I may have frightened you there."

As Kakashi finally managed to get himself standing straight, Kouta bowed apologetically, before saying "If it's any consolation, don't forget to say to the Hokage that I will not be very happy if you are punished for this, make sure he knows exactly who I am, if my story is as well-known as I hope, the Hokage wouldn't take any action against you."

Kakashi could only look at him with surprise, thoughts suddenly filtering in as he remembered that only moments ago, the man had used the Hokage's first name. 'He's hiding something, if he referred to the Hokage by first name, then he must have met the Hokage before!'

However, he said nothing, instead putting his fingers into a seal form, saying "I shall pass on your message to the Hokage, please, take care of the boy."

As Kouta nodded silently, the leaves seemed to sweep up about the ninja, hiding him from view. As they vanished, so did the ninja with the dog mask.

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><p>The Hokage could only stare out of the large window of the Hokage's office sadly at the bright festivities below, the brilliant festival that took place each year to mark the defeat of the Kyuubi. While for many, it was a time of celebration, it was also a time of sadness for many, and the Hokage was no exception.<p>

Every year he was reminded of the numerous ninja who had died trying to defeat the demon fox. What was worse for him was the knowledge that they had all died under his command. He was meant to be the greatest ninja of Konoha, but before the force of nature that the Kyuubi had been, he was helpless, only able to try his best to save as many as he could, even as ninja's died screaming all about him.

It had taken for the newest Hokage, barely elected only months before by the old man, to give up his own life to seal the fox away into his own newborn child, sacrificing his own soul to do so. With his death, the foxs reign of destruction had ended, and the village had been saved thanks to his heroic actions. But it was in this was where the greatest failing had been.

It had been the wish of Minato, the 4th Hokage, that his son be raised as a hero, and to become a splendid ninja capable of protecting Konoha. However, the villagers had been unable to see past their hatred and grief in the deaths of their loved ones. The moment it was revealed the Naruto Uzumaki had become the living prison of the Kyuubi, there had been mass riots, people screaming in the streets, hungry for the death of the newborn babe, it had taken nearly every ninja still alive in Konoha to stop them.

It was at this time that, in order to protect the child from what had now become a curse for him, that Sarutobi had passed the ban of all knowledge regarding the Kyuubi from the child, that no villager may ever pass on their knowledge of the Jinchuuriki to any of the next generation of Konoha.

It had been the hope of the old Hokage that, by restricting information, that perhaps the child could grow up peacefully with the next generation of children. However, the villagers could not forget their hatred, and many still resented him even to this day. Even though knowledge was restricted, parents told their children to keep far away from the boy, and children were very impressionable, so they adopted their parents distrust of the boy, even though they knew not why.

Every day, he had to keep a vigil over the boy, for it was far too often that the villagers would turn on the child. The orphanage had even kicked him out from under their roof, leaving a poor child to fend for himself on the streets. After learning this, the Hokage had procured an apartment in the central district for the boy, and through thinly veiled threats of retribution, *impressed* upon the neighbours to not react badly to the young boys presence.

It hurt the old man's heart to know that the boy had to fend for himself. He had been so hopeful years ago, when merely days after the riots, one man, still barely a boy by his reckoning, stepped up before him, asking to be released from active duty, almost pleading to be given guardianship of the new-born child.

It didn't take much to realise that somehow, the young Hatake Kakashi had somehow learnt that the baby was indeed the son of his mentor, and out of respect for his deceased mentor, wished to take care of the young child. While he would have regretted losing the services of the young genius ninja from his ANBU forces, he knew there would have been no better candidate than the young student of the child's father.

But Danzou had interfered, persuading the council that, not only could the village not afford to lose the services of the Ninja, but that leaving the future Jinchuuriki in the care of Kakashi would be too much of a danger for the Jinchuuriki, as it presented a possible leak of information should it become known outside the village that the genius Ninja Sharingan Kakashi had adopted a child, and that would lead to discovery of Naruto as a Jinchuuriki.

Even if it was the case, Sarutobi refused to agree, again and again appealing otherwise, but the persistence only made things worse, as the council judged that no contact between the child and Kakashi was to be permitted. The young ninja couldn't do anything to stop what happened to the child, he was restricted to merely watching at a distance, he couldn't even step in if the boy was attacked, only report it to the other ANBU, who were often deliberately slow at coming to the boy's aid.

He knew the risk of it was even worse on this day, that every year, on this day, something happened to the child, and he was helpless to do anything. All he could do was increase the number of ANBU watching the streets, with orders to break up any group that looked potentially dangerous, but he knew that it would not be enough, for so many of his ANBU would willingly wait and watch until the boy had been attacked, and only intervene when he life was truly at risk.

It disgusted him, but he also knew it was because of the upset and grief many felt at the loss of loved ones. At least that's what some of them were, there were also those who just attacked the child out of fear of what he was, ones who had never even been hurt by the Kyuubi. It was these people that truly sickened Sarutobi, but as usual, there was little he could do to help the child, for anything that brought undue notice to the child, could bring undue notice to other villages spies.

As he drew another tired breath, he felt a presence enter the room behind him silently. Turning about, he was surprised to find the silver hair poking out atop the dog mask that the ANBU operative wore.

"Kakashi? This is rare, I would not expect a visit from you on this day of all days." Sarutobi said slowly, moving about to sit at his desk and face the Jounin.

Kakashi stood to attention, before reporting "My apologies, Hokage-sama, but I have an urgent report to make."

Sarutobi's heart dropped as he heard the words, fearing the worst as his thoughts strayed to the young child Kakashi would normally be tailing this night. Within an instant, he jumped clear of his desk, his gnarled frame strangely agile as he picked up the wide hat that represented his office as Hokage, putting it atop his head as he made for the door, saying "You can explain it on the way!"

"My pardon, but I would rather do so here, Hokage-sama." Kakashi replied stiffly, not moving from the spot as the elder man's forward motion slowed to a stop. The old man's arm that had been reaching for the door fell slowly to his side as he swallowed the lump in his throat, asking "Report."

Kakashi nodded stiffly, before explaining "As of 1700 hours, Uzumaki Naruto attempted to run away from Konoha. Thanks to the restraining orders that are in effect on me, I was unable to stop him from leaving Konoha."

The old man breathed out slowly, rubbing a hand over his eyes before he slowly returned to his seat once more. With a weary sigh, he looked down at the photo on his desk, of Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage.

"I can trust that, since you're here, that the boy is safe? What happened?" The old man asked wearily. Kakashi remained silent for a second, composing his thoughts, before he spent the next ten minutes explaining the child's escape through the forests, the incident when he was knocked unconscious, and the sudden appearance of the man who took care for him.

It was at this point that Kakashi hesistated. The Hokage had remained silent throughout it all, wizened eyes watching him intently, but it was here that things could go wrong.

"The man, after speaking at lengths to Naruto, and hearing of the… for lack of better words, mistreatment that the child has suffered, offered Naruto the option to travel with him until he felt he was ready to return…and the child accepted his offer."

Once again, the man rose from his seat, picking back up the old pipe from his desk as he turned his back to the ninja. For a while, there was silence between them, the old man quietly watching the flashing lights of fireworks and listening to the sounds of jubilation from the festival that paraded happily on the streets viewable from the offices windows.

Without looking back at the ninja, Sarutobi spoke quietly "Kakashi, you have served the village faithfully for many years, and I have come to value your opinion, and trust your judgement… so I shall ask you now, with your truest and most honest opinion, do you believe this is the right choice for Naruto's future?"

The answer was almost immediate, Kakashi only stopping for one second to lift his gloved hand up, to lift that dog mask, revealing the true face of the silver haired shinobi beneath, the one he always hid behind a mask, one eye regarding the window, where Kakashi could see the old man's reflection watching his reaction intently. In the reflection of the window, the Hokage could see him clearly, his one good eye filled with a determined gaze, his one scarred eye closed, lips forming words clear for the Hokage to see, the words read by those motions as well as heard by his ears

"Without a doubt."

Once again, silence filled the room, the old man's free hand now rummaging quietly through his robes. A few seconds later, a lighter was procured in those gnarled hands. With slow, deliberate motions, the pipe in his hands was lit. With another slow motion, the lighter was stored away within the recesses of those robes as the pipe was raised to his lips.

As the Hokage thought in silence, so too did Kakashi, hoping in his mind that the Hokage would see reason. True, the situation in one way was disastrous; Konoha's Jinchuuriki had fled, and was now travelling with only a sole guardian to protect him from being targeted by other villages.

But, for Naruto, this was also the greatest opportunity ever. His new Guardian seemed to be a well-travelled man, with exceptional intelligence, experience and strength far beyond the normal even amongst shinobi, so much so that even Kakashi himself would not want to fight the man in real combat.

The man was practically immune to Genjutsu, capable of an extraordinary level of Taijutsu, also possibly a Kenjutsu master considering he bore a blade. Even if he hadn't shown himself to be capable of Ninjutsu, just on instinct, Kakashi doubted that there were few people who could claim to be as strong as this mysterious Wandering Sage.

"So, who is this guardian that you so willingly entrusted the boy to? Is he a trustworthy man?"

"Hokage-sama…?" Kakashi said, almost as if in disbelief, accidentally opening his Sharingan eye as both normal and special eyes each widened. The words the Hokage had said indicated that perhaps he was considering allowing Naruto to go.

As the old man did turn about, Kakashi was once again struck by how old the leader of their village was, his face old and world weary even as he smiled sadly.

"Indeed, Kakashi. We have done the boy who should be our saviour too many wrongs. However, thanks to our stations, neither you, nor I could intervene directly to alleviate his suffering. But, if you truly believe that this is the best option for him, as long as you can trust that this man will not lead him astray, then I shall trust him too, and entrust the boy's future to him, rather than leave him to his suffering here."

With this, the old man reached a hand down to his desk, gnarled fingers brushing against the picture there of the man who should have succeeded him, eyes sad once more, but only for a moment.

"Yes…" the old man repeated again, his eye's gaining some old spark as he continued "…why not? I'll make sure that the council see's our view, I'll force them to if I must, I'll deal with Danzou once and for all on this issue. I was too weak and stepped down the last time a Guardian stepped forth for the boy, but this time, I shan't, I am the Hokage after all, there has to be some perks to having this title. Don't worry Kakashi, if you believe Naruto will benefit the most from this, I swear I will make it happen."

For a second, the eyes flicked up, catching Kakashi off guard as he quickly covered his chin and mouth with his gloved hand, but not fast enough for the old man to miss seeing the ghost of a smile across his face.

Coughing almost in embarrassment, Kakashi continued "I trust that this man is both wise enough and strong enough to safeguard Naruto, and if my instincts are right, he will be perfect as a mentor as well, perhaps even better than having Naruto attend the academy. He also seems to have Naruto's interests solely at heart; he made the offer so that Naruto could gain the knowledge and strength to achieve the goal of becoming Hokage."

At this news, the Hokage finally cracked a smile across his weathered face. The boy's unbelievable earnest ambition to surpass him never failed to warm his heart. "What an interesting man, to so surely think that he can be the way for Naruto to achieve his dream, did you catch his name?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama, he called himself Kouta, The Wandering Sage."

*CLATTER!*

Once again, Kakashi's eyes widened as this time, he heard the loud noise of a falling object bouncing off the floor. To be exact, it was the pipe that the Hokage had been holding merely seconds before. The man himself was staring wide eyed at Kakashi.

"…Kouta-san… I almost can't believe I'm hearing that name again…" The old man said, almost in disbelief, grabbing hold of his desk to support himself.

"…Sorry?" Kakashi said in confusion, but the old man still seemed shell shocked.

"…Is it really just coincidence? That it would be that those two would cross paths...I knew the boy was to have a fate alike no other, but for it to run him headfirst into the Wandering Sage?"

Kakashi could only look on as the old man started to mutter to himself, worrying the silver haired ninja. For a second, Kakashi doubted his decision, his body moving into action, his mind already recounting the steps necessary to reach that camp where the boy slept in what he had believed to be safety, but the words of the Hokage now made him believe might not be.

"…huhuhu…"

A low chuckle, which as Kakashi paused, turning back towards the old man, suddenly broke into raucous laughter, the old man bending over double under the weight of this outbreak of spontaneous humour, wheezing slightly as he tried to draw breath and fight back the laughter.

"HAHAHAHA…hah…of course this would be the case, it is always in the most mysterious of circumstances that man comes and goes…but this…this is perfect!"

As the old man finally recovered, for the first time in seven years, on the 10th October, on the date of the Festival of the Kyuubi's Defeat, on the date of the child Naruto Uzumaki's birth, for the first time on this day, Hiruzen Sarutobi's face broke out into a wide smile, one full of mirth and happiness. As if this turn of events had taken away the toll of age from his wizened body, the Hokage easily bent forward, stooping down as he picked back up the dropped pipe, before quickly returning to his full height, popping the pipe back between his lips before returning to look out the window as he drew deeply from the pipe, his face now smiling at the festivities below for the first time.

With another chuckle, the now rejuvenated man spoke "Yes, this is perfect; there is no man in this world I would entrust the safety and fate of that boy to more than that man. I expected never to hear of a sighting of that lone wanderer again, let alone be able to employ his services in this method. Yes, this is perfect, the boy will travel the five nations with the wanderer, there is few greater paths in life than to follow in that Sage's footsteps, I am glad that fortune smiled upon that poor boy in this way."

"There may be only one problem though…" The Hokage said finally, turning his head slightly to see Kakashi, regarding the stunned man out of one eye, his smile still in place even as he said "…I doubt it will be the same boy that we remember who will return to this village, that man has a habit of changing the fates of those his path intertwines with, only time will tell, for now, let us wait in hope for Naruto's return."

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><p><strong>And that's a wrap! Anyhow, please let me know how you felt about the story, if I receive enough positive comeback, i'll continue with the storyline, since after writing this, i've gotten attached to this story, and would be dissapointed if it had no interest.<strong>

**The next chapter, if written, will be several years later, after years of journeying with the Sage. I will be purposefully skipping their journies for now, but as the story continues, more will be revealed about both Naruto and Kouta's travels, where they have gone, who they met, and what Naruto learnt along the way.**

**As a warning, Naruto will go through quite a bit of a charecter change. While his basis will still be hyper jumpy kid, the travels with the Sage will have tempered him, in mind, body and soul into a unique personality compared to before.**

**Anyhow, please review if you can, feedback will be most appreciated!**

**UPDATE: Holy-! I thought it was the lack of charecter tags that made my stories less popular (alongside their M status, which i'm thinking of changing), but this damn well proves it, 12 reviews in one night? Bloody hell... anyhow, since there have been multiple points made (some nicer than others 0.0), and it will be a while before I can start the next chapter, i'll put some notes here.**

**1. Sorry for the seeming god mode on Kouta, but I wanted to make it clear that he could be entrusted with Naruto, since Naruto will be travelling alone with him into potentially dangerous areas, he needed a Guardian who was more than capable to handle himself. As for Kouta vs Kakashi, Kakashi was limited in that he used no Ninjutsu, no Sharingan and no flashy tactics due to Naruto sleeping nearby. Kakashi isn't regarded as a high level Taijutsu master, he's more than competant, but it's his balance between the three arts and variance which is his skill. In terms of pure Taijutsu, Kouta has knowledge of abilities from across all five nations, and has mastered them to an extent which would make him a Taijutsu specialist, so he could defeat Kakashi purely in that aspect. Also, this is Kakashi as of four years prior the start of the series, and 7 years prior part 2, suffice to say Kakashi is far from the power he exhibited in series, so this is nowhere near the extent of Kakashi's A-rank skills**

**2. No problem, Naruto is the main charecter of this story, not Kouta, and he will be gaining a lot of skills and strength, and he will be coming back at 12 and pretty powerful, but I have my reasons.**

**First off, Naruto recieved little additional training as a child, nobody was willing to teach him. Just about every other Gennin would have trained with their family to learn their own techniques, but Naruto had no teacher at all, yet he has an amazing capacity to pick up A-Rank Jutsu, I mean, mastering Kage Bunshin in a few hours? Mastering Rasengan, which is chakra control at it's most extreme in the entire series within a week, and creating an entire variety of jutsu branching off it?**

**Face it, Naruto has an incredible aptitude to develop given the right mentors, and now a Sage who travels the whole nation with impunity has just become his personal mentor, and will be doing so for many years. Hell yeah, Naruto has a good enough excuse to become far stronger, he wont be god-like, but for several chapters until a villain appears who can handle him, he will appear so, so bear with the seeming godliness of these charecters for now, until an enemy or rival appears that can match them, they may appear to be overpowered, but just be patient please XP**

**3. Finally, Naruto will go through a personality switch, but in no way will he become a darker person. Let's say, without spoiling too much, Kouta will hammer out his extreme recklesness and stupidity. The new Naruto will still be as upbeat and sunny as before and i'll try to keep some humour in him, hell, I may even keep his pranker spirit, but he'll be a bit calmer than the previous Naruto, and a lot more intelligent to boot, no more *run up in front w/ tons of bunshin and clobber* strategies that never work, but Kouta will be teaching him practical knowledge and battle strategy. He won't be a Shikamaru, but he will be a lot smarter than before. He'll also develop an interest in nature, which iv'e just added for a common ground between himself and Ino, who is the flower shop girl. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Holy hell, 800+ views already? That's more than the total readers of my Bleach story in the three years i've been writing it, what the hell? Well, it seem's my theory was dead on, it's not the content, but the charecter tags you use that chooses whether your story gets popular or not, kinda frustrating...**

**Oh well, thank you for all the people who have subscribed and favourited this story! I'm afraid I had to turn off the alerts for the + options, as my inbox increased by 50 messages in 8 hours, and that was wayyy too many for me to read through in what time I get free each day, but know that I am ungodly grateful for those who have favourited this story!**

**And thank you for all the reviews as well! All the advice you have given me will hopefully help towards making this story better!**

**Now, as I said before, this re-continues at the point that the series began, when Naruto was 12. I know he's a bit young for all the skills I will be giving him, but work with me please, i'll try to make him as balanced as possible. Also, there may be some time discrepencies, as my knowledge of the Naruto timeline is kinda off, so please forgive any obvious mistakes I may make.**

**Anyhow, onto chapter 2, and I hope it's as enjoyable as the last, no fights this time (unfortunatly), but there will be a short one next chapter for those who like them!**

**Anyhow, enjoy!**

**UPDATE: I hope I did the new description of how Naruto looks justice, I know it sounds dramaticaly different from the Naruto in the anime, but he essentially is the same as before in terms of temperament and whatnot.**

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><p>"So, it seems we have finally arrived." Kouta's soft voice observed as the owner of the voice reached a hand up to push the edge of the sakkat he wore on his head up, squinting slightly in the sunlight as he regarded the great gates of Konoha before him. Beside the man, a boy who couldn't be much older than twelve grinned widely as he eagerly regarded the giant gates that marked his return answering back "Yep, it feels good to be back!"<p>

The man shook his head almost as if in disbelief, looking back down at the child beside him, but unable to supress the smile that spread across his face when he saw the look of pure anticipation in Naruto's eyes.

Not much had changed about the Travelling Sage in the years he had travelled since that night five years ago. He still seemed to favour the pale blue robes that he always wore, strangely at odds with the random merchants and villagers that passed them by, casting furtive glances in both his and Naruto's direction at the almost gaudily bright clothing of the man. The only noticeable addition was the sakkat he had taken to wearing that day to offset the harshly bright sun that was overhead. Except that, the Katana that he bore was instead concealed within the recesses of the blue robes that he wore.

In comparison, there was another sword bare for the world to see, but this one was different from the Sage's long Katana, instead a shorter, thin Kodachi, a dark blue sheath covered the fine metal as it was borne not by the Sage, but instead was Naruto's own sword, strapped diagonally across his back with the hilt poking out past his right shoulder instead of hidden like his mentors.

Unlike the Sage, Naruto had changed dramatically. Gone was that weak boy who always shied away from others in the village for fear of their retaliation. Instead, Naruto now bore himself proudly, standing tall (or short, for the boy had yet to hit his growth spurt), his blonde spiky hair no longer unruly like before as once his mentor had *impressed* that his standard of hygiene had to change, much to the boys shock, a copious change to his normal hygiene regime of *once a week* to *once a day* had caused an amazing transformation to the dirty blonde tangled mane of hair. With this change, Naruto had taken to keeping his hair more grown out than before, bangs falling forward close to his eyebrows, the rest of it tied in a ponytail that started at the base of his neck, trailed down his back and stopped short between his shoulder blades.

At first, after travelling with a mentor for the best part of his life, one would expect Naruto to have adopted his mentors choice of clothing, but Naruto was too stubborn to wear anything that he was halfway suspicious would look girly on him, so the pale blue robes of his mentor were out of the question. However, the orange monstrosity of his jumpsuit had been systematically destroyed by the months of travelling he had gone through, and try and beg as he did, his mentor had not consented to buy anything that looked remotely alike that god awful excuse for clothing to replace it. Instead, Naruto had been forced to replace the clothing with ones that were agreeable in the eyes of his mentor.

The new clothing was a far cry from the jumpsuit, dark blue shinobi pants adorned his legs with a black weapons pouch strapped to his right thigh, accompanied by a black vest which, on his mentor's advice, had been further reinforced with a light chainmail mesh. Covering this vest was a cerulean jacket which he chose to wear open, chosen to match the amazing cerulean blue of his eyes, much alike his mentors robes matched his sky blue eyes he normally hid from view. To finish it off were a pair of black combat boots.

Although a lot of his looks had changed, the light armour and sword making him look closer to being the shinobi he wished to become, none of it could change that kindness and openness which radiated from his eyes, nor the fox like grin that was splitting his face.

Flicking the sabbat back down to cover the glare from the sun once more, Kouta quietly asked "Are you sure this is what you want, Naruto? There is still much of the world you did not have a chance to see in this short time, many places I could not find the time to take you. You can always return later, with much greater experience than you have now, so are you certain you wish to return now?"

Naruto shook his head, before looking back up at the taller man, beaming happily as he answered "No, I want to come back now, because if I don't re-join the academy this year, I won't graduate with people the same age as me!"

Kouta shrugged slightly, countering "Ah, but I have never graduated from any academy, and my life has been fine, hectic, but certainly enjoyable, so why is it so important you graduate with them? Were they not the ones who ignored and mistreated you?"

"Yes, but that's exactly why!" Naruto answered seriously, frowning as the two once again started this verbal battle for easily the hundredth time in the last few days. "If I can prove to those in the same year as me that I've changed, and I'm worth being accepted, then it's the first step towards getting the whole village to accept me!"

Kouta sighed sadly as he raised his hands in mock surrender. He had become attached to the young boy during the time they had spent travelling, it had been enjoyable travelling with the boy and teaching him all the knowledge he could. Not only that, but in every town and village they had visited, the boy had somehow drawn people to them, making friends and relations in ways which Kouta had never seen possible before, almost as if the boys kindness drew others who sought or needed companionship to him.

And it was this that concerned the older man. He still remembered the chilling stories that Naruto had hesitantly told him as they travelled together, and no matter what way it was spun, the village of Konoha was the worst place for this boy to go; it went against every nerve in his body to let the boy return here. But, he had promised the boy years ago that he would never go against Naruto's wishes and dreams, and he was a man of his word, no matter how much sometimes he wished he wasn't. All he could do was these verbal arguments with the boy, but Naruto was far too headstrong to listen to his words now.

"Hey hey, Kouta-shishou (1), c'mon let's go! I want to go to Ichiraku's, I've been dreaming for weeks about getting ramen from Ichiraku's!" Naruto suddenly shouted out eagerly, startling the man out of his reverie.

"Okay, let us go, but you really don't need to keep calling me that, I'm no teacher, just a…wanderer…" Kouta started to say amicably, but his words died down as he noticed two people in matching Konoha combat vests striding forward from their posts at the gate to intercept them, and judging from their expressions, they weren't happy to see the pair.

"You two, stop right there! What do you think _you're_ doing back here?" the taller ninja said scathingly as he approached the two, the second half of the challenge obviously pointed at Naruto. Beside him, Naruto tensed up slightly, his smile faltering. He recovered quickly, although the smile looked strained as he was about to reply to the challenge, but a light blue sleeve swept up before him as Kouta raised his arm up in front of him, signalling for him to wait.

Unlike the boy, Kouta kept a placid expression as he softly replied "Greetings, my name is Kouta, a traveller from distant lands, and the child who travels with me is Uzumaki Naruto of the village of Konoha, returning after an extended training trip. My apologies that my presence here has very little purpose, other than to explain I am the child's guide and protector. If it is necessary, I shall submit to any checks required for outsiders to enter the village-"

"No, not you!" the second ninja suddenly spoke up, cutting Kouta's explanation short, rubbing a hand across his eyes as if he was dealing with a fool. Playing the part, his brow raised high in feigned surprise, Kouta spoke softly "Well, if there is no issue with me entering the village, then we shall be on our way, good day. Come Naruto, I am most anxious to see this *Ichiraku* for myself."

Smiling amicably, Kouta made as if to pass the two guards, signalling for Naruto to join him. Naruto quietly went to follow, but the second ninja pushed forward, stepping between Kouta and Naruto, glaring down at the boy.

"You're free to go, as long as you know not to cause trouble in the village, but that…_boy_…you bring with you is not welcome." The taller ninja spoke as both he and his partner glared down at Naruto, who did his best to stand tall under their glares, but was obviously struggling to do so confidently.

Kouta looked back at the two in confusion, or at least it seemed to be for as usual his eyes were seemingly closed, but at the least his brows were still raised high. "I'm sorry, but please, do explain exactly what it was Naruto did that makes you so unwilling to allow his return?"

At this seeming innocent question born out of stupidity from the confused traveller, the two ninja's faltered for a second. After all, speaking of the Kyuubi was a capital offense, even if they were unaware just how much knowledge the Sage already knew about the village and all of the history that had passed within the great walls of Konoha within his mind and his journals.

However, the taller ninja quickly came up with a justifiable answer, taking one second to compose his face back to neutral from the glare he had been giving Naruto before looking back at the Sage, answering "This is Konoha's business, as an outsider you do not need to know, or are permitted to know what any… _former_ citizen of Konoha has done, just be on your way!"

Kouta frowned deeply, but Naruto perked up as he realised this was another of the man's varied feigned expressions. Then Kouta said "Well, if that is the case, then as his travelling companion, I must be suspect too, but if I cannot be allowed to know what his crime is, then this issue will have to be taken before the head of your village…the Hokage, I do believe?"

At this, the Ninja's could almost be heard to be grinding their teeth in chagrin. Now that the Sage had brought the Hokage into the conversation, they realised that it would do no good to bar Naruto, for if the Hokage was made aware of the situation, he would obviously sanction Naruto's presence in the village. However, the obvious answer to the two would be to simply deny Kouta's request. After all, they were the gate guards, he a simple traveller who didn't even come from Konoha. He had no right to question them

But the decision was taken away from them, as a man wearing a Jounin vest that revealed him to be a ninja came through the gates up behind the two Ninja, reading a small book as he walked. With quiet snap, the book the Ninja was reading close to his face was shut; revealing a shock of silver hair, a face that was masked from his nose down, and an almost bored expression. After his sole revealed eye seemed to scan the four before him, both Ninja's turning in surprise at seeing a senior officer, Kakashi asked almost in a disinterested tone "Well well, what do we have here?"

"Kakashi-san?" the taller ninja asked in surprise. From where they stood, they couldn't see the slight smile that spread across Kouta's face as he saw the ninja, before once again adopting his look of confusion, saying "Sorry sir, but I'm just as confused as you, they stopped both myself and the boy a few seconds ago, I know I'm not from this village, but I didn't think we'd be-"

"Hey wait, we already explained there was no issue's with-!" the taller ninja interjected, trying to talk above Kouta as he tried to explain the situation to Kakashi, and the resultant clash of words started become incomprehensible as Kouta raised his voice further, trying to drown out the words of the taller ninja. On Naruto's face, a small grin started to form and widen as it dawned on him what Kouta was trying to do while nearby the shorter ninja, who in the confusion had forgotten to keep glaring at Naruto, could only look on in confusion while an obviously bored Kakashi just rolled his eye.

As ninja and traveller eventually reached the stage of hollering over each other's words Kakashi just coughed audibly once, rather quietly compared to the loud hollering in front of him. While Kouta had been waiting for a sign, the taller ninja hadn't, and as such when Kouta instantly stopped shouting, the walls of Konoha literally reverberated with the shouting of the ninja as he hollered "FOR THE LAST TIME, THERE WASN'T ANY BLOODY PROB-"

However, his shouting slowed to a stop as he realised he had been bellowing like an idiot, just about every villager, merchant and even the sole beggar on the streets of Konoha further inside the gate were staring at him with a curious expression, all of their stares accompanied by Naruto's loud laughter as he pointed, laughing at the ridiculous sight of the bellowing Ninja. As the taller ninja looked at the laughing whiskered boy with a look of shock and dismay, Kouta merely shrugged his shoulders.

"Well…with that out of your system, why don't we just call it a day then? I'll take responsibility for the OBVIOUSLY suspicious looking man in gaudy robes, and since the boy has been confirmed as an inhabitant of Konoha, I can't see any problems, job done." Kakashi announced as he turned about, opened the book in his hands back up and started to walk away. However, after a few steps, he paused for a second, casting his gaze back to Naruto disinterestedly as he added "Naruto, you had best go see Hokage-sama, no doubt he will have some important stuff to sort out with you now you've returned." With that, and an offhand wave, the man resumed his walk.

As the two Ninja just stared dumbfounded at the quickly disappearing Jounin, Kouta whispered back "And that Naruto is our cue to move on." Naruto finally got his laughing under control, beaming happily as he answered "Right, Kouta-shishou!" quickly chasing after the Sage as he calmly strode past the gates of Konoha, humming a quiet tune to himself.

Behind them, two Ninja's stood stone still, trying to figure out exactly what went wrong when they tried to stop Naruto's return to the village.

* * *

><p>The door opening with a bang was about the only warning the old man had before he suffered an attack via the unique Taijutsu technique that during their travels together, Kouta had come to dub "The Blonde Missile", nearly sending the Hokage, the most powerful ninja in all of Konoha backwards over his own desk. As the old man stared down at the mass of blonde hair shouting out "OJII-SAN!" about his midriff, Kouta silently walked into the room at a more relaxed pace, quietly taking a place close to the door to watch the encounter.<p>

"N-Naruto-kun? Is that really you?" the Hokage finally managed to wheeze out as he tried to draw breath from the almost bone crushing embrace he was in. As if in reply, Naruto looked up from his embrace, his whiskered face beaming with obvious joy back up at the old man, happily exclaiming "Yeah, it's me! I'm back now! I missed you sooo much ojii-san!"

The exuberance of the young boys greeting instantly banished all worries from the Hokage's mind of what may have happened to Naruto in the years since he had heard of any activity from him, a genuine smile breaking across his features as he looked down endearingly into the beaming face of the boy.

After several more seconds of this, Naruto seemed to finally realise that perhaps he was crushing the old man with how tightly he had embraced him, and he quickly hopped away, laughing apologetically as the Hokage adjusted the hat that had been knocked askew atop his head, chuckling himself in good humour.

"Well Naruto, it's good to see you again, I'm slightly surprised to see you back so soon, did you really manage to explore all that you possibly could in a mere five years?" The Hokage asked as he leaned against the desk he had nearly been sent flying over only seconds before.

"Well no, not really, even though we travelled for so long! I never knew the five nations were really so massive! There was so much, I had to start writing stuff down to remember it all!" Naruto replied with a happy smile, fishing about in one of the pockets of his pants before pulling out a tatty, battered, obviously well used notebook, a scrawl on its front cover above the leaf symbol reading 'The Great Uzumaki Naruto-sama's Chronicles'

"Oh, I would love to talk about everything you've done while you've been gone Naruto-kun." Sarutobi replied as he eyed the tattered notebook with an obvious gleam of interest in his wizened eyes. "But, like I was saying, isn't this a little soon for your return? I thought you would probably be at it for a good few years more, if not forever if that lifestyle suited you."

"No way, it was really good fun, and I learned so many things, and saw so many amazing sights, but if I am going to be Hokage, then I wanted to start at the beginning, so I came back for the graduation!" Naruto replied, pocketing the book as he did so and adjusting the ties which held his Kodachi which had slipped when he grabbed the Hokage. This motion wasn't lost on the Hokage, who eyed the sword with a hint of dislike, his eyes flicking to the man who watched silently nearby. However, Kouta made no movement to respond, so Sarutobi looked back to Naruto before he would be noticed.

"Well Naruto, I think that's a brilliant idea, my lad, it's heartening to hear you wanted to start with the current generation of shinobi, yes, it won't take much to have you enrolled within the academy in time to start the test, so, would you like to see where you will be studying?"

* * *

><p>"So, this is a Ninja Academy…?" Kouta asked softly as the three of them wandered the halls of the academy, Naruto's gaze rapidly switching as they walked from wall to wall, classroom to classroom, picture to picture, everything he could see, an eager smile across his face.<p>

"Ah, of course you have never seen one before, have you Kouta-san?" Sarutobi asked as he walked alongside the Sage, smoke trailing from the pipe he had been using as he happily watched the eager boy who ran ahead of them.

"No I have overseen some of the other villages training rites, but they wouldn't let me near their training centres, being a civilian has its drawbacks, in fact I'm rather surprised you let me come along for this." Kouta answered softly as he peered through the open doorway of a classroom, his brows raising in slight surprise at the significant amount of children with bored expressions within, barely listening to the Chuunin who spoke at the head of the class.

Sarutobi chuckled quietly at the phrase *civilian* that Kouta had used, but didn't comment, instead answering "I thought you may have an interest in seeing what he will be taught."

"Hardly, he already knows everything any academy in the five nations could possibly teach him, and more so than many graduates, I made sure of that, this is simply a formality that he wishes to observe, but I respect his wishes." Kouta answered simply, almost bluntly, uncaring that he had just calmly insulted every educational institute in the entire known world. What was worse was that Sarutobi didn't even try to contradict him, instead pondering anew just what exactly Naruto had learnt during his travels.

"Is it this one ojii-san?" Naruto called back eagerly, standing beside and pointing up eagerly at the plaque that read 2-C, waiting for the two slowly walking men to catch up.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF SASUKE-KUN!"

All three people in the corridor between classrooms almost fell over in shock from this loud shout that almost erupted from the classroom, somehow shouted at the same time by two distinctly different female voices, accompanied by the sounds of chairs flying helter skelter, assorted jeers of "fight!", "cat-fight!", "10 ryo on Sakura!" and various others almost chanted from within.

"BOTH OF YOU STOP THIS INSTANT!" a loud voice added into the carnage within the room.

Near the door, Naruto's smile widened to Cheshire cat size as he started to pull on the classroom door, intent to jump in and find out what the commotion was. However, Kouta suddenly moved forward without Naruto noticing, his hands instantly undoing the strap around the Kodachi tied about his back and removing the sword without Naruto's notice. As Naruto leapt into the classroom now minus a sword, Sarutobi arched an eyebrow at Kouta's sudden decision, but he simply replied "Bringing a sword into class is hardly good for first impressions" as he hid the Kodachi alongside his own Katana within the folds of his blue robes, before walking in after his apprentice.

The aged man simply sighed before also following, where he narrowly avoided a flying chair to the face, disturbed as the two girls practically fell down the aisle between seats, all but a few of the other students hollering at the fight as a scar faced sensei tried to stop the battle between a platinum blonde haired girl dressed in purple and a vivid pink haired girl dressed in red, both girls wrestling as they screamed insults at one another.

"Hey, is anybody else perhaps thinking *who is the new kid by the door who walked in with Hokage-sama*?" a bored voice called out loudly from the back of the class, announced by one of the few who weren't partaking in the bets, a lazy looking boy with a black spiky ponytail who was regarding Naruto with some slight interest. At the mention of their Hokage, everybody, the students, the sensei, even the two girls who were halfway through putting each other in a headlock froze and looked up towards the classroom door.

"Quod Erat Demonstrandum…" (2) Kouta whispered from beside Sarutobi, referring to his earlier comment of how the academy wouldn't teach Naruto anything useful, earning a stern look from the Hokage as Naruto smiled happily, exclaiming "I'm liking the look of this class already, and I've not even greeted anyone!"

Unnoticed to the smiling boy, he was quickly scanned by the collective students in the class. The first gender, the females, were the more affected, the sunny smile of the boy, the stylish blonde ponytail, the impressive clothing style and the confident way he bore himself as he looked at them earned him seven definite fans immediately, twelve who couldn't decide between him and the other candidate for fandom, leaving a mere two firmly in the court of the other contender, namely the two girls who were still frozen in a headlock, staring at Naruto in relative annoyance at having disturbed their important battle for possession of the contender in question.

Amongst the guys, there was comparatively less interest, most of them annoyed that the cat fight had been stopped. Amongst those who weren't involved, the boy with the ponytail had already lost interest, yawning before staring out the nearby window. The only other, the boy in blue clothing with raven black hair, scrutinized him under a different look than any of the others, gauging whether or not he was capable of combat or not and whether he would prove a problem in the future.

"Well, why don't you introduce yourself to the class?" Sarutobi asked the boy, interested to see what he would do.

Naruto didn't fail to impress, his smile spreading across his face at the request as, with a single jump from the doorway, he cleared the entire distance to the desk that the sensei usually stood at and landed atop, everybody's eyes following the sudden motion. With a deft motion, he kicked up a stick of chalk from the desk he stood at, leaning across to the chalk board as he rapidly scribbled an elaborate name across the board.

THE GREAT UZUMAKI NARUTO-SAMA

FUTURE HOKAGE OF KONOHA

Dropping the chalk back down, he turned about to face the entire class, arms crossed as he loudly announced "The Great Uzumaki Naruto-Sama has arrived! My interests are travelling, making new friends, exploring new places and seeing the world! My likes are Ichiraku ramen, Kouta-shishou, Instant ramen, Ojii-san, any other type of ramen, all the friends I made as I travelled and cool looking swords! Oh and gardening, although I haven't really had the chance to try since I've been travelling for so long. My one goal is to become the greatest Hokage ever!"

Nearby, Sarutobi chuckled quietly at the declaration, while Kouta rubbed his eyes exasperatedly, realising that he should have let Naruto keep the sword, since on his own he had single handedly made himself look and sound like an idiot.

For a while, the entire class sat in silence, trying to digest, or at least comprehend half of the things he had confidently shouted at them. Sure, some of it had sounded rather impressive, after all interests in travelling the world and alike were impressive no matter how they were said, if only he hadn't gone calling himself *Great Uzumaki-sama*, it would have been an impressive introduction. That and the copious references to ramen.

The scarred teacher recovered first, clapping his hands together loudly as he said "Well, it's nice to meet you too…Naruto" hesitating only for a second to make sure he didn't repeat the gaudy title Naruto had given himself before continuing "I'm Iruka, your new classroom teacher. Now (3), the seat behind Sasuke is free, the one beside where Ino is MEANT to be sitting!"

The last part was deliberately shouted out at the two girls still halfway in headlocks, who instantly let each other go, muttering insults at each other as they returned to their respective seats, the platinum blonde one sitting beside the empty seat, instantly identifying her to Naruto as the girl called Ino, and the boy in blue diagonally in front of her as Sasuke. The pink haired one returned to her seat on the far end of Sasuke's row, glaring daggers back at Ino as the platinum blonde girl responded in force.

Naruto nodded once, looking down at the sensei from where he stood on the desk, asking "So that's going to be my seat is it, Iruka-sensei?" As Iruka nodded in return, Naruto beamed, before vanishing. Or so it seemed to the shocked students, Naruto having leapt high into the air above their heads in the high ceilinged classroom, spinning in mid-air as he flipped himself to face the boards direction before landing with a solid thump on the desk he was to be seated on, disturbing Ino's book and making it fall to the floor.

As everyone simply gaped slack jawed at him, Naruto jumped lightly off the desk, landing in his seat with a bright smile, as if everything he just did was what he considered normal. However, he cried out slightly in dismay for an inexplicable reason, although Kouta knew why. As Naruto searched about him in dismay, he coughed quietly, causing Naruto to turn his head about at breakneck speed in his direction. With a slight movement, part of his pale blue robes moved aside and a tiny fraction of the pommel from Naruto's Kodachi poked out from the folds, before being quickly hidden away.

With relief, Naruto smiled once more, before quickly reached down, grabbing the book that had fallen, then looking back up with an apologetic smile to his new neighbour, nervously offering the book with a quiet "Sorry…" After a few seconds, the girl seemed to get over the shock, grabbing the book out of his hands with an annoyed glance and slamming it back onto her own desk.

With that slam, it seemed time resumed once more in the class, everybody but a select few turning back to the front of the classroom, in particular Sasuke glaring darkly out of the corner of his eye up at Naruto, realising that he would have to re-evaluate what he thought the blonde would be capable of.

"Well, shall we be off, Kouta-san?" Sarutobi asked as he turned towards the door, but Kouta instead moved towards Iruka, smiling amicably as he said "Sorry to trouble you, but as Naruto's guardian, I would like to know what the training and class schedules are for Naruto, could you tell me?"

Iruka seemed to hesitate; looking at the Hokage as if in confirmation for is he should tell Kouta anything. Sarutobi quickly nodded, smiling slightly as he realised that Kouta was still interested in Naruto's welfare, not merely here as a formality, before vanishing like he did last time he had appeared in the village.

"Well, Monday through Thursday is all class lectures, where they will learn about the different types of chakra control, different jutsu's, Kekkai Genkai and how to recognise and neutralise the most common ones, the history of Konoha and it's Hokage, amongst many others. Friday is when we do all the practical classes, sparring and practice with shuriken and kunai."

"NANI! WE ONLY DO PRACTICAL ONCE A WEEK?" Naruto suddenly shouted from his seat in shock, causing every person within three seats in any direction to clap their hands over their ears to protect their ear drums. Sarutobi's eyes widened in shock, but not so much so at Naruto's shout; he could have predicted that Naruto, alike any child, would scream about having four lessons of lectures, but not for him to choose the flipside argument about the lack of practical instead. Once again, he could only glance in wonder at Kouta, at what he could have done to make any child forget to complain about an excess of lectures, and instead complain about a LACK of training time.

"…that is troubling to hear, Naruto is used to physical training at least for an hour or two every day, is there any place he can go to practice sparring amidst his fellow students?" Kouta asked in real concern.

"…well, I'm afraid not, he can try finding a sparring partner and practice outside of class, but besides that, no. To be fully honest, we never anticipated such a complaint to arise…" Iruka hesitantly answered, accompanied by another dismayed cry from the boy.

Kouta seemed to think for a while, before turning in Naruto's direction and smiling reassuringly, promising "Don't worry; you can always continue physical training with me in your free time." Naruto seemed to think this over for a while, before smiling widely, replying "Ossu!"

Sarutobi could only shake his head, chuckling to himself as he said "Well, shall we go, Kouta?"

Kouta nodded in reply, waving a goodbye to Naruto, who responded enthusiastically in kind, before leaving.

As soon as the door closed, Kouta said only one thing, ever so quietly.

"A place to talk, where nobody will interrupt."

* * *

><p>As they stood silently near the memorial of those who had died in the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha, the sky dark and foreboding, heavy with clouds, the grounds with nobody in sight for miles in any direction and no chakra sources detectable by either Sage or Hokage to show a ninja in hiding, Kouta finally dropped his act.<p>

"Hiruzen, you have a lot to explain…" Kouta spoke quietly, but no longer in his soft tones, taking that harsh flintiness once more as he directed those words at the Hokage beside him without looking.

As if in response, Sarutobi lifted the hat from his head, the sign of the official office of Hokage, and placed it down on the memorial before them, his movements weary as he answered "It has been a long time since any person called me by that name…nobody has since I took this office of Hokage decades ago, no one…except for you."

"Whomever calls you by whatever name they wish does not concern me, you owe me an answer, one five years in the waiting, and one I will have now!" Kouta replied harshly yet with a quiet restraint, his eyes boring into the Hokage's own in supressed rage. "How? How could the man I knew, the greatest ninja in Konoha, the man who swore to bring about an unparalleled age of peace dare to fail a person so badly? I already know what weight he bears, but the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the man I once knew would never have let such an innocent child suffer so, be he a monster, a hero or a just a plain normal child! Tell me, Hiruzen!

And I swear so, if it doesn't satisfy me, if you don't have a refutable reason for what you have failed to do, or if you dared let prejudice cloud your judgement as the villagers did, then only one of us will leave here tonight, either my journey will end, or yours shall!"

The old man didn't even shudder, or react to these words, the death threat vowed by the Sage whose gaze pierced him as surely as any blade could. There wasn't even a hint of surprise that the Sage had so easily announced his knowledge of the Kyuubi sealed within Naruto. The only thing that filled the old man's heart was remorse as, turning to the stone, he laid a hand softly upon the engravings, quietly saying "This was the reason… All of those who perished by the claws of the monster that now is sealed within the young child…Kouta-san, tell me…what else could I do…? No matter how much I knew in my heart that the child was innocent, I could not make the villagers see the truth, no matter how hard I tried…"

"You know my answer; you should have made them listen!" Kouta almost shouted back, no longer able to suppress himself as he violently swiped his arm across the space between them, his features twisted in anger as he shouted back "You should have made it clear that there was to be no tolerance of mistreatment to the boy! If you had made it clear from the offset, then the villagers would have respected your decision, you are their Hokage!"

However, Sarutobi sadly shook his head, refuting Kouta's challenge, replying quietly "Whatever I would have done to protect the child would have only caused more problems…no matter what you may wish or say, the villagers could not forgive and forget the many deaths that the Kyuubi caused, for those who hated him, they would have done everything they could to harm him…I hate with all my heart that this is so, but if I had restricted everything, who's to say they would not have, in desperation to get revenge, revealed this secret to those outside this village?"

"So you're justifying their acts as the lesser of two evils!"

"Kouta-san, you know how this world acts, more so than any other man alive, can you imagine what would have happened if it was ever discovered by another village that within the walls of Konoha, there was a child, young and defenceless, who harboured the might of the strongest Bijuu in existence? Those from Kumogakure were more than willing to infiltrate Konoha time and again in their attempts to obtain the Byakugan of the Hyuuga, could you imagine what lengths they would go to get their hands on Naruto? It was the judgement of the council of Konoha that stayed my hand from helping the child, and for the boy's own safety as much as the safety of the villagers, I could not go against their judgement."

Kouta's fists clenched in anger as he turned slightly away from the Hokage with what could best be described as a hiss of annoyance and frustration. He could hear the sense in the old man's reasons, but couldn't bring himself to agree with it. He couldn't hold back his anger at those who had hurt Naruto, he wanted to vent his fury on anything, everything, and for one moment turned about rapidly, drawing his fist back as he made to strike the stone monolith before him, the memorial that was as much testament to the suffering of the village as testament to the numerous grudges the villagers unfairly took out upon the young child.

Sarutobi didn't even try to stop him, watching wearily as Kouta struggled with the anger inside him, knowing that as much as the Sage's emotional fury was bad, the reason for Kouta's fury was the same as his own guilt, at being unable to do anything for Naruto. However, with a deep breath, Kouta's arm was lowered, his head also lowering down with it.

"I just can't stand it Hiruzen…that such an innocent hearted boy had to suffer so…" Kouta finally said after minutes of silence, his voice soft once more, yet filled with a sad emotion that was easy to hear. "I knew this was the most likely explanation, I'm no fool, but I still hate it all the same…"

As he said this, the Hokage put an arm out, reaching across Kouta's shoulders as if to reassure him, sadly replying "I know Kouta-san, I know, and I truly regret it all the more for it. But as the leader, as the Hokage, I had to do what was best for the village and for his sake, even if it put him through suffering which no child should have had to go through. Every day I wish I could have gone back to that night and undo what I did, to have never revealed Naruto's existence as the Kyuubi's container. If I had only had the foresight to know how the villagers would have reacted, I would have never let the village know…"

As the wind slowly blew past the pair of men, there was silence as they both regarded the memorial before them, a stray leaf dancing in the air before them as they silently stood. After some time, what could easily have been an age for the two who stood silently, they both started to walk away together, two old, world weary men in robes walking side by side, even if only one of them wore their age and experiences so clearly, the man in white robes movements slightly stiff, his back slightly bent, compared to the man in blue who stood tall and walked smoothly. Yet the expressions they bore would make a perceptive person perhaps wonder who was truly the older of the two.

As they walked the clouds finally broke, a ray of sunlight illuminating their way as they walked. The older of the two raised his head up at the single piercing beam of light, before smiling slightly, murmuring as he walked "You know Kouta-san, every moment I could find spare, every arrangement I could make a little shorter, I spent with the boy..."

"I know…" Kouta replied quietly as they walked, his head also turning up to the sky as he folded his hands over one another behind his back, adding "They were his fondest and most precious memories, he would always tell me about the times he spent with you, a brilliant smile across his face as he recounted in great detail everything he could."

The old man chuckled slightly at the response, before saying "It was good of you to send that message ahead of your intended time to return, Kakashi had been milling about the gate to Konoha all day awaiting Naruto's return since I gave him the order to make sure you got in safely."

"Yes, about that, what is that man's connection to Naruto? When I asked Naruto, he seemed to know nothing about any ANBU with silver hair, so how come he always seems to be watching over the boy?" Kouta asked

"All in good time, Kouta-san, it is something that you should ask him, not I, but I will say he cares for the boy as much as you or I, if not more. So, just how much did you manage to teach Naruto during his travels?"

"Teach him? Very little." Kouta replied, earning him a surprised look from the Hokage. As a smile finally started to creep across his face once more, Kouta continued "Everything he learnt, he learnt by seeing it with his own eyes, experiencing it with his own body, there was very little I actually instructed him in, other than the Way of the Sword."

"Yes, I noticed that sword, if I may?" Sarutobi asked, proffering one gnarled hand. Nodding, Kouta unclasped his hands from behind his back, reaching into the recesses of his robes, before drawing out the dark blue sheath of the Kodachi he had taken from Naruto. Taking the sheath in hand, he pointed the sword handle to the old man, who drew the blade, the metal ringing out clearly as the sword was drawn smoothly from the sheath.

Raising the short sword up before him, the Hokage scrutinized the blade, admiring the obvious high quality of the sword's make, before smiling slightly as he read the history of the sword through the nicks and scratches along the blade edge. This blade that Naruto bore was no killer, it had yet to be bathed in blood, although the numerous nicks and marks showed that it had seen a lot of use. However, the lack of dirt and the smooth shine of the metal, alongside the un-scuffed sheath that he could see clearly from Kouta's hands showed its owner cared for his blade meticulously.

"It's a beautiful sword, one that Naruto should be glad to bear…" Sarutobi spoke softly, smiling slightly as with practiced movements; he directed the blade back home, sliding it back into its sheath, the Tsuba clinking slightly as it met the metal about the opening of the sheath. Kouta quickly stored the blade back within the recesses of his light blue robes, answering "Indeed, after a certain…ah…encounter in one of the villages surrounding Kirigakure that was fortunate in some ways, and unfortunate in others, Naruto was taken by the beauty of the Way of the Sword, and begged me to teach him. He is an apt student, but his excitable nature and boundless energy means he cannot use the same Ryuu as me, he shall need to create his own Way."

The Hokage chuckled at that, to say that Naruto was *excitable* was probably a massive understatement. "So, aside from Kenjutsu, what else has the boy learnt? Did you teach him any of the jutsu he would require for the Shinobi exam?"

"Yes and no."

"Do explain…" Sarutobi asked curiously, wondering just what the enigmatic words meant.

Kouta laughed softly in reply, before continuing "Besides from the very basics, there was little I could teach him, for I am fully aware just how inadequate a teacher I am for the Shinobi Arts, many of the techniques and jutsu he learnt, he inherited from those we met in our travels who were willing to pass their knowledge onto him. However, as his first mentor, I noticed that Naruto himself posed an intriguing challenge. The boy has a marvellous reservoir for chakra, far more so than any child I have seen of his age, or of many Ninja in total and with it, I am proud to say he has mastered a veritable range of techniques and Jutsu. I would say that in chakra capacity alone, he surpasses an average Jounin rank ninja, and his capacity only keeps increasing with the years that pass. But with that, he lacks the control needed to use minor jutsu effectively."

The Hokage stroked his chin in contemplation as he considered just what this meant. But his brows raised slightly as he remembered the last part of Kouta's words. "Minor jutsu?"

"Yes" Kouta confirmed with a nod, once again clasping his hands behind his back as he explained "He can control chakra effectively when it comes to vast quantities, but it seems he cannot when you bring it down to academy level jutsu. I have tried teaching him every chakra control method I knew, meditation, tree climbing, water walking, even real combat exercises and multiple jutsu control under such situations as fighting on water, but to little avail."

It was lucky for the Hokage that Kouta was watching the sky still, for he did not see the look of pure disbelief that flashed across the old man's features, nor the stumble as in his lack of concentration, the old man nearly tripped on a badly placed stone. The exercises that Kouta had calmly explained having taught Naruto were normally withheld from Konoha's prospective graduates until their second year of being a Gennin, even the talented ones never learnt these skills before becoming Gennin, for no normal person would have the chakra reserves capable to use them.

'I guess that must be the Kyuubi's influence on the boy, or is it his inheritance from his parents?' Sarutobi mused silently, almost missing Kouta's continued explanation as he said "Eventually, he managed to get enough control to use two of what I would consider the three essentials, _Kawarimi_ and _Henge_, but no matter what I tried, he could not master _Bunshin_. However, after that…encounter I described to you earlier, the ninja we encountered passed on some of his techniques to Naruto, one of them proving an adequate replacement for his inability to use _Bunshin_."

Sarutobi nodded slowly as he finally got over the shock of what Kouta had told him. As he did so, he mentally listed the required jutsu for passing the Academy Exam, and beside the chance that Bunshin would come up on th exams, what Kouta had told him sounded promising. "So, he can use _Kawarimi_ and _Henge_, but what do you mean by a replacement for _Bunshin_?"

* * *

><p>"UZUMAKI NARUTO, YOU WILL PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS OR KAMI HELP ME, YOU WILL BE IN DETENTION FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!" An irate Iruka shouted across the classroom, the vast majority of the other students hiding sniggers as they looked at the form of the blonde haired boy at his desk, forehead on the table, a pool of drool starting to spread out from where his mouth was as his snores practically rang out across the classroom. However, that stopped immediately with a cry of surprise as Naruto suddenly awoke from his stupor, grabbing onto his desk as his chair started to fall backwards from the sudden movement of sitting bolt upright at the sensei's shouted words.<p>

"But Iruka-sensei, it's all really boring stuff!" Naruto whined as he finally regained his balance, the front two legs of his chair clattering off the classroom floor as he finally sat back in place. "Besides, I already know everything you said we'd be talking about, so why can't I just sleep?"

"What kind of idiot do you think your sensei is, Naruto? Do you really think I believe that excuse?" Iruka said quietly, seemingly calmly, but the twitching eyebrow along with the threatening to explode vein that stretched across his forehead was daring Naruto to try and say anything back.

Naruto simply frowned in response, replying "But I do know all about the four Hokages, what their famous for, their jutsu-"

"LIKE HELL I BELIEVE YOU!" Iruka almost roared back, picking up a stick of chalk from his desk, before throwing it full force in Naruto's direction, aimed perfectly at the defiant boy's forehead. As it got closer, any person who could see fast enough would realise that Naruto's eyes were widening rather than wincing shut as the missile flew at maximum speed for him. Normally, if a missile flew at someone, they would try and dodge, or brace, but the boy was seemingly afraid of it, as if he realised something was about to be revealed to the class. In desperation, he tried to avoid the missile.

But Iruka's aim was true, and Naruto's reaction half a heartbeat too late, as the chalk solidly impacted with the boy's head, instantly causing the boy's head to be flung backwards with the force of the impact.

"Uh oh…" was about the only response from the boy, before…

He exploded

Literally

The girl beside him, Ino, screamed out in surprise and shock as she was splashed with liquid all over, instantly drenching her from head to toe. Sasuke in front also got covered, his blue clothes turning darker as they soaked up liquid from whatever had just flown from the spot Naruto had previously been sitting at. About seven others also suffered from the explosion, splashes of a clear liquid flying at them, but Sasuke and Ino definitely suffered the worst of it.

Water

A torrential downpour of it

Everybody in the class who had not suffered from the sudden deluge from Naruto's previous vicinity was just staring dumbly at the now empty seat, even Iruka couldn't tear his wide eyed gaze from the spot, even as his mind lamely told him that somehow, by some method, Naruto had not only managed to use a C-Rank Mizu Bunshin Jutsu without him noticing, but had somehow managed to escape the classroom, leaving a sleeping clone in his seat.

It took only a few seconds, but eventually the classroom was filled with a cacophony of shouts, of laughter from some pupils, of dismay from those who were soaked, of downright anger from two girls in particular, Ino at her own absolutely soaked clothing and hair, Sakura from the same reasons, but instead in outrage that her beloved Sasuke had been soaked. Sasuke only quietly fumed, already wanting his revenge against the idiot that had made a mockery of him. But above all of this, was one loud bellowing shout from the sensei up front.

"NAAARUUUTOOO!"

In the academy's playground, one lone boy, blonde hair trailing behind him as he swung from the playground swing, beaming happily at a time at odds with the time that most children would be in class, winced slightly as he heard the echoing roar from the classroom, before quietly chuckling to himself, his only reaction to push off the ground harder as he tried to swing as high up as he could.

Unbeknownst to even the boy who swung happily from the swing, a sole eye gazed at him from the rooftop of the building nearby, under the mask the ninja wore a smile that spread across his face, chuckling quietly at the antics of the child below him. With a quick flick of his wrist, he re-opened the book he always carried with him, turning away from the child as he vanished with the Shunshin Jutsu, nothing but a swirl of leaves left in his wake.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, chapter over! I hope I portrayed Naruto as faithfully as I could. Also, I hope the meeting between Kouta and Sarutobi made sense, and i'd like to point out, just because Kouta would willingly challange Sarutobi to a fight to the death, it does not mean they are equal or Kouta is superior, in fact I am currently tempted to make the story so that Kouta doesn't use Ninjutsu at all, making him closer to a Samurai than a Ninja.<strong>

**Anyhow, this was just an intro chapter for all the charecters, I'll go deeper into the relations I plan next chapter. It may be a little while before I make the romance connection with Ino clear, but stay with me if you can!**

**As always, please review and subscribe if you can, thanks!**

**(1) This is an honorific for teacher or instructor, kinda alike to -sensei, but sometimes used for martial arts/sword arts instructors. Compared to -sensei, -shishou is considered a much politer and more respectful term, and goes to show the level of respect Naruto has for Kouta. In modern Japan, sensei isn't really used in respectful terms, just for title purposes, but being named shishou is still considered a term of deep respect.**

**(2) Quod Erat Demonstrandum: Latin for *Which was to be demonstrated***

**(3) Let me make clear, I don't know the class seating plan in the series, and I don't care, I just made a new one XP, if I happen to be right, then all's good.**

**(4) A Ryuu is a style, like saying that Karate is a style of Martial Arts, or Cubism is a style of Art**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry that this is so painfully short a chapter, i'm afraid life has been busy and my time for writing has been nil. However, I thought you guys might want an update so i'm just doing a short chapter now, only ~4000 words but that's all the time I had, sorry XP.**

**Anyhow, since i've had a lot of reviews now, I figured I should give some replies, so to those who have reviewed (nice guys, critical guys and one or two complete asses), theres some replies for you below! If you didn't send a review, just skip over them and go to the story which, as always, is in non Block for easy recognition.**

**Enjoy!**

**Review answers**

**Anonymous: …why even waste your time posting that?**

**naruto no juubi: Thanks, I'll do my best to update regularly!**

**Shi T3nsei: Yeah, like I said in my intro, it kinda follows the same plot pointers as FreeTheKyuubi's New Fate, New Beginning storyline, however the writing, O.C, reactions of characters and the way the charecters interact are all done by me, it's just the plot direction that is the same for the starter chapter.**

**EDelta88: …erm are you referring to an event in the chapter, or the chapter itself as a whole? Slightly confused as to what that actually meant. Either way, I'm just going to reply *Yep!* and hope that sounds like an adequate response 0.0**

**Mzr90: Thanks! While Ayame doesn't sound like a workable idea, I think using Yugao might work. Hadn't originally planned on Kouta getting a romance, but I'll work it in now you've suggested it, will have to wait a long while though, Yugao is *ahem* taken at the moment, while it sounds kinda crude, gotta wait for Hayate to die first lol**

**StPhoenix: Thanks, and I'll try to live up to your expectations!**

**TheBlackSeaReaper: Thanks, and I will try to update soon!**

**Gento70: Thanks! I don't really see myself as very skilled, but I'll try! And this has received enough attention that I have indeed been inspired to continue it so thanks to all!**

**KC: Thanks, and hope you continue to enjoy reading!**

**Meech Macko: I will do my best to meet your critiques, Kouta's abilities will be carefully reviewed to make sure he isn't overpowered (mind you, i'm not changing reactions from other charecters, Kouta will have a tendancy to inspire intimidation or praise slightly more than his actual powers since nobody knows exactly what he is capable of) and as well he has a tendancy to have emotional instability where he gets overemotional on a whole other level, hopefully these count as de-Gary-Stu-ifiers, and he will be burdened with some more weaknesses to remove my accidental portrayal of godliness thus far and I can promise you Naruto will NOT get a dark attitude, he will be smarter than before, but he still will be every bit as sunny as before, I hope this meets your expectations lol!**

**Satsuma Revolution: Sorry, but I have never seen or read of this V for Vendatta you referred to, so I don't know what you mean…but I will do my best to continue so thanks for the positive review!**

**(Guy who left no name number 1): …ahem, okay so besides from being a complete ass when you did so, you did bring some important points to view. First off, it was a MEETING OF CHANCE! Or fate if you will, but hell, it doesn't have to make sense! Secondly, Kouta is NOT famous with ninja, that was just something he told Kakashi to cover up the truth, that he happens to personally know Sarutobi, a plot point that will get covered later. That's also why he knows so much, it's because he knows through Sarutobi, who trusts him enough as a personal friend to tell him such secrets prior to meeting Naruto, again the reasons why get covered in later plot points, just wait for me to reach it! Finally, he beat Kakashi in Taijutsu because he is an extreme Taijutsu specialist and Kakashi didn't use the Sharingan.**

**(Guy who left no name 2): Thanks for the compliments for my other story, and I hope you enjoy this as much as you did my previous ones!**

**Agoge: Thanks, and Naruto, while essentially the same, will start to display the difference between canon Naruto and himself pretty soon!**

**Alex-Simmons: Thanks and I'll update soon!**

**Rinnala: Well, I'm the only one who knows for sure XP, I will drop some hints though, I plan to swap the original Gennin teams up, and the very first mission involving Zabuza will be dramatically different, and involve a different ending than canon.**

**Tomcat171: Thanks! And if you ever see any dramatic errors in my grammar, don't hesitate to point out, my only one is I will not be using those strange symbols above letters for names, call me lazy but I don't want to have to constantly open up internet pages to get 'ō' for Kankuro when we all know who he is. I will take the time for technique names, but not character names. Also Kouta will be padded out in the future, but for now, it will be Naruto who has the spotlight, come back in a few chapters after Kouta has a proper chance to integrate with Konoha's residents before I start padding his character properly.**

**Agoge: Thanks, I thought of that on the spur of the moment, although this will have an InoxNaruto pairing, I wanted a slight rocky start to make it clear it isn't a *fangirl* obsession like with Sasuke, and kicking things off with a hilarious prank is always good! That and driving Iruka up the wall sounded like fun!**

**TheBlackSeaReaper: Thanks, I'll try to keep up the good work!**

**Demenciae: …urm…whoops? My bad, I'm used to Bleach writing so I accidentally used the term Shunpo, it has been corrected to Shunshin since!**

**Jayley: Thanks! I wanted to do a slight change in Kakashi, since the connection between Naruto and Kakashi has never really been very strong, despite the fact that they really should have had more in common, as such by adding the knowledge of Naruto's father to Kakashi; I changed his mentality towards our favourite prankster.**

**Papicubano: Thanks, and I'll try to keep updating!**

**Erlic: …hrm not very many words… aw don't worry, I appreciate that you liked the story! And I'll try to keep up the good work!**

**NOTE FOR ALL! Please, even if your not a member, use a name rather than Anonymous or (no name), it makes it easier to identify who is who when I make replies!**

**Read on!**

* * *

><p>'How…much…longer' was the only thought slogging through Naruto's mind as he desperately tried to avoid the invitation to sleep that the incredibly boring lesson was giving him, now firmly back in the classroom and being forced to listen to Iruka drone on at the front of the classroom.<p>

After his previous escapade had been discovered, it hadn't taken long for Iruka to find him, someone from the class having seen him playing on the swings from the windows of the classroom and instantly grassed on him. 'Give the sensei credit, he's fast…' Naruto thought blearily, fighting off a yawn as he remembered the short time between that horrible sixth sense of danger kicking in, turning his head slowly from where he swung and seeing a boy's finger pointing at him from the classroom window, and the time when he had his ear painfully clamped between finger and thumb, getting dragged painfully back to the classroom by the scar faced sensei.

He had never even seen the furious teacher go from the front of the class, to the open window, to the open grounds and to the swing, only aware of the sharp pain as he was grabbed and the bellowing shouting almost tearing his eardrums as Iruka had started his tirade.

Now that he had been successfully returned to that classroom, he didn't dare try to repeat the same trick again, after all, Iruka was a Chuunin, and Naruto doubted the Mizu Bunshin would work a second time. While he still had several other plans to escape lessons stored in his thoughts, his current situation wasn't exactly *safe* enough to proceed with any, due to Iruka's surprisingly effective countermeasure. Even now, as he gingerly reached a hand towards his right side which had recently become quite sore, he glanced nervously at his neighbour.

Earlier, when Iruka had practically frogmarched him back to his seat, Iruka had given him a rather scary smile, one that had sent shivers up the blonde boy's spine. At first, he didn't understand the meaning of the smile, after all his previous teacher had been a patient man, and one more than willing to adjust his lessons to keep Naruto's interest in the lessons he taught as they walked. Kouta had never needed to resort to a drastic or particularly self-satisfying plan to keep Naruto in check.

As Iruka had walked away smiling still, Naruto's danger instincts started to kick in as Iruka spoke loudly to the whole class:

"Now, Naruto, as this is perhaps your very first lesson in a classroom environment, and you were perhaps unaware that you DON'T ditch classes when you are bored, I will and I stress this time only, let this little joke slide…"

At these words, there was a mixture of responses from the students, cry of outrages were specifically loud from his nearby neighbours, Naruto clapping his hands over his ears in pain and surprise from the vehemently loud cry of outrage from Ino beside him, followed shortly by a glare from her direction that would have killed any lesser man, only slightly belittled by the humorous single drip of water from her still slightly damp ponytail that had suffered from the earlier deluge of water all thanks to him.

In his defence, Naruto did feel a little guilty that he had soaked his new neighbour before he even had the chance to introduce himself, even if, for some reason Naruto couldn't fathom, Ino happened to have kept a spare set of identical clothing to her first set so the purple clothes she wore were no longer soaked. However, guilty or not, he couldn't help but edge away in fear from that murderous gleam in her eyes.

At the front of the class, Iruka seemed patient enough now to wait as the mixed cries of confusion, outrage and in one or two cases a quiet cheer in that the newly dubbed class prankster had gotten away with what he did started to drown everything out.

After these had died down, the majority of the class started watching Iruka again, but with seven people now giving Naruto murderous glances from nearby, although non still as intense or particularly scary looking as the platinum blonde girl beside him. Funnily enough, despite being numbered as one of the seven Naruto's exploded Mizu Bunshin had soaked, and being the second worst hit excepting Ino, Sasuke did not partake in this death glaring. Instead he was seemingly contemplating something in silence as he looked at Iruka intently for an inexplicable reason. No, his position amongst the seven death glares had been taken by Sakura, who had already snapped the pencil in her grip in her outrage at Naruto escaping punishment for soaking her beloved Sasuke.

Clapping his hands lightly to regain all of the student's attention that strangely dangerous smile still gracing his features as he watched Naruto with a wicked gleam in his eyes, Iruka started to continue

"…however, it also seems that you may have a problem with remaining alert in class. It would be a problem if you missed anything important that will come up on the Gennin Exam, as such I will give responsibility for keeping you…alert…to a fellow student…"

With this, Naruto finally realised what Iruka may have had planned for him, and had speeded up his attempt to retreat from his neighbours glare, finding to his dismay that he had ran out of desk to shift along to escape the reach he estimated the kunoichi might have.

Smiling cheerfully, Iruka announced "Ino, since you sit beside Naruto, I will leave it as your responsibility to keep him alert in lesson..." Beside him, Ino tensed up in anger, opening her mouth to voice her protest for easily the hundredth time that day. However, Iruka added one last phrase that stopped her protest instantly

"…by any means you deem necessary."

And now, half an hour after that announcement, Naruto was gingerly holding the side of his jacket, remembering all the times Ino had _thought_ he needed help keeping alert, having promptly, and with a very satisfied expression, jabbed her pen right between his ribs, eliciting a howl from the boy time and again which Iruka conveniently ignored alongside all the sniggers of their classmates.

Even though he wore armour underneath his jacket, by some twist of fate or some sarcastic kami's intervention, that pen had found the gap between the rings in the chain-link every time, and Naruto was suffering greatly for his earlier joke. Even now, as he glanced nervously at her, she seemed to notice his look, that earlier glare of ire now replaced by a mischievous smile as she took pen from paper and slowly spun it between her fingers as if to make a statement to him once more, causing him to wince and shy away.

If it hadn't been for the fact it was aimed at him, Naruto would have normally liked this change in the girls attitude as he quickly came to realise his next seat neighbour was actually stunningly attractive, her long blonde hair, so much lighter a colour than his own, fell the entire way down her back in a ponytail, long bangs falling just over the right side of her face, which was amazingly attractive as well, her features sharp with a slightly exotic look. Her clothes also revealed a lot, several parts of the purple clothes lain open, with bandages tightly wrapped around her body instead, although leaving her shoulders bare. To top it off, she had stunning light blue eyes, which right now were lit with that mischievous light in her plans to get revenge on him.

Were it not for that last bit about the revenge on him for soaking her, he would have been very glad to have this seat beside this beauty, but right now he wanted to be on the opposite side of the class, preferably with a good few inches of steel between himself, the platinum blonde and that oh-so-painful pen.

'How much longer!' Naruto thought again desperately, still trying to fight off the boredom, trying to keep his features attentive lest his neighbour use it as the excuse to stab him in the ribs again. As if to answer this prayer, at the front of the class Iruka finally stopped droning on, instead clapping his hands as he announced "Okay everyone, let's break for lunch."

"YAHOO!" Naruto shouted out in cheer, punching the air almost in victory, half surprised as he watched a boy in a furry hoodie at the back of the class mimic his movements almost in synchrony with him. 'Seems I'm not the only guy who gets bored to death here…' Naruto thought in the back of his head, his thoughts more centred on getting out of the classroom as fast as he can, already leaping towards the partially open window as behind him Iruka shouted out "Don't you dare try ditching classes Naruto, I expect you back in here within the hour!"

However, getting no reply, Iruka ran over to the window as the rest of the students used the more normal exit of the doorway, a couple of them sniggering at Naruto's antics as they left. Looking out, he saw the boy practically rolling around in the grass with a massive grin on his whiskered face, laughing loudly as he enjoyed himself like any other kid of his age. Pulling back from the windowsill, Iruka rubbed his face in weary resignation, wondering would he be able to keep a hold of his sanity long enough to reach the exams.

* * *

><p>As he lay in the grass, enjoying the feel of the sun shining down and the breeze tugging at his hair, Naruto was wondering the exact same thoughts as his sensei.<p>

"Man, I didn't imagine it would be soo booring" Naruto grumbled quietly as he remembered the class. During the times he could actually manage listening to Iruka drone on, everything the sensei said he had already heard once before from his previous mentor. But while sitting in that classroom had been stifling and boring, Naruto had never once had to do so with Kouta. Often they had spoken around the open campfire, the Sage often using examples of what they had recently seen as examples for his lessons, showing the relations of the elements through actual practice, using something as simple as fanning the campfire with a large leaf to explain the complicated connections in elemental collaboration jutsus.

"What was *soo booring*" a voice asked from nearby, surprising Naruto out of his reverie as he sat bolt upright, instinct to flee kicking in already, a minor part of his mind surprised as hell that he had gained a conditioned instinct to escape from the one who owned that voice. Looking about sharply, he soon found the source of the voice leaning against the trunk of the tree the playground swing hung from.

"Ehehe…the lesson?" Naruto replied nervously, hoping against hope that this person wasn't about to attack him or something, anything to get vengeance for soaking her earlier. However, judging from her rather relaxed posture as she leant against the tree, it seemed the half hour of stabbing him repeatedly with a pen had been enough to assuage her rage as Ino watched him curiously with this bright eyes.

"So you soaked me and Sasuke-kun because you were bored…?"

'Crap, she's still mad…' Naruto realised as he started to nervously edge away from the girl in purple, once again underestimating that complicated thing called the female mind as Ino pushed off from the tree and started walking towards him. Naruto was about a fraction of a second of scrambling up and bolting from her, but instead of doing anything, the girl simply crouched down level with him, tucking her arms around her knees as she asked "Were you being serious?"

"Hah?" Naruto blurted out in confusion, freezing in place at the sudden change in tone from the girl. Ino rolled her eyes in exasperation, muttering something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like an insult about how dumb a person could be, before continuing "I said were you being serious? All that stuff about travelling around the world?"

"Ah, yeah of course! D'ya want to know about it?" Naruto replied eagerly, relaxing slightly as he realised he wasn't about to be attacked again, sitting back in a cross legged pose as his massive grin returned in full force. Ino raised a brow sceptically, but didn't stop herself from joining the blonde on the grass, sitting down on the grass as well, signalling to the boy that he had an listener, even if she was seemingly sceptical of whatever he might say.

For the next while as the sun shined down on both teller and listener, Naruto cheerfully regaled a mere fraction of the time he had spent away from Konoha, the first few months that he could remember when Kouta had first started their travels. Even though it had been easily five years ago and most memories from that long ago had been nearly lost to his thought, their only record in the series of tatty journals he kept in his pack, there was no way he would ever forget his first impressions of the real world outside of Konoha, that first taste of freedom that his new mentor had shown him.

As he spoke, Ino could barely keep the surprise from showing on her face. Naruto's story was simply astounding, the way he fondly spoke of each and every memory with such perfect clarity, she could almost paint the places he had been within her mind. She wasn't the only one either. Naruto was lost in the telling of his tale, locations and places painted with such cheery yet powerful emphasis and Ino absorbed in the story that Naruto weaved that neither noticed a third, hesitant presence nearby, an eavesdropper with pure white eyes wide with something akin to adoration at the teller of the amazing tale.

Even though he was immersed deeply with his story, Naruto still was cautious about what he spoke of, and didn't once speak of those Kouta and he had met, those mercenaries, fellow travellers and even ninja whom they had met on their travels. Instead, he focusing his tales on the details of the places they had gone, the intense heat from the sun that seemed to burn in the sky above the desert sands they had traversed, the tranquil peace amongst the animals at the undisturbed pools where they had stopped to get fresh water, the intense crowds within the massive bazaars in villages which the listening students had never even heard of in their lives.

"…it was about then that I accidentally set his pack on fire, Kouta-shishou wasn't happy at all with that…not at all…" Naruto said after a while, shivering slightly despite the rather warm weather as he remembered what happened after that.

* * *

><p>Back in the Hokage's office, a certain man in blue's eyebrows shot up in surprise, turning his head to look out the wide window to the town below, his gaze zoning in on the ninja academy in the distance, taking his attention away from the elderly man before him who had only moments prior been in conversation with him. As Sarutobi noticed the sudden lack of attention from the Sage, he coughed discreetly.<p>

"Ah, sorry?" Kouta asked, quickly turning back to the Hokage as he brought his attention back to the here and now. Sarutobi chuckled slightly as he said ironically "If I'm boring you in any way Kouta-san please, do tell." Kouta shook his head slightly in turn, his gaze returning back to the window as he softly, almost pensively said "Oh, it's not that, I just remembered a rather…amusing memory, although I don't know what exactly sparked it…"

Sarutobi laughed at that, replying "Oh come now Kouta-san, you're far too young to be going senile already." Kouta shrugged in reply, looking back at the old man with a smile.

"Now…" the Hokage continued as he bent his wizened frame to sit back at his desk. Quickly opening on of the numerous drawers in the desk, he fished about for a while inside before quickly withdrawing his arm with an incredibly thick file. Closing the drawer again, the file was dropped back to the desk as Sarutobi continued "…since you gave me fair warning, I was able to deal with a couple of issues ahead of time. I have taken the liberty of arranging some new accommodation for Naruto-kun, something a bit more spacious than before…"

Kouta nodded as Sarutobi managed to separate the correct documents from the file, handing over a small pamphlet of a flat.

As his eyes scanned the document, Kouta murmured "This looks rather new…"

"Indeed." The Hokage said with a smile, before explaining "Rather recently there were expansions to the accommodation sector due to a shortage of housing, it was relatively easy to procure one for Naruto's use…

…However…"

Kouta looked up at the hesitancy in Sarutobi's voice as he finished scanning the pamphlet. The old man seemed to be struggling with saying something and Kouta had a pretty good idea of what it was after reading the pamphlet. If it was what he thought, then he didn't really have any issue, but just for his own humour, he decided to go along.

"I just noticed this flat is for two residents, Hiruzen…" Kouta said softly, causing the old man to flinch slightly. Coughing in an attempt to cover up this, the old man replied "…yes, about that… for official reasons, it is required to include the tenants name on the deeds…now, for the sake of Naruto's safety and privacy…it would be best if no recordable documents actually have his name upon them…and it would raise further suspicion if I signed them myself…so…"

"So…?" Kouta continued slowly, noticing the slight sweat that had broken out upon the old man's head, hiding the ghost of a smile that threatened to break out on his face. His guess had been dead on the mark.

Swallowing almost nervously, the man called the strongest ninja in all of Konoha was in a cold sweat at having to tell the man before him the truth.

"…so…the deeds are signed not in his name, but in yours!" The Hokage said all in one rush, watching the man nervously across the way. What was unsaid in this declaration was that it meant that, as a non-villager, Kouta would have to physically be a tenant and live in the building for it to remain in his name.

That meant Kouta, the Wandering Sage, would no longer be able to leave Konoha. If he did, the deed would no longer be valid, and Naruto would have nowhere to live. His travelling days would be over.

"So…without my permission, you have hobbled me? You have forced me to become tied to this village for Naruto's sake?" Kouta asked slowly, and quietly, his eyes once more opening more than their usual fraction, revealing that piercing sky blue gaze, a sure sign of his emotions starting to build. The Hokage braced himself for impact, fully expecting his office to turn into a maelstrom from the reaction of the man opposite him.

After several tense seconds, Kouta smiled widely, his eyes returning to normal once more as he spread his hands in a wide gesture, replying "That's what I had planned anyway."

The Hokage literally deflated, falling back in his chair as his body lost its tenseness, wiping a hand over his eyes as a small smile spread across his face as he said "Kouta-san, your giving this old heart too much of a work over, I half expected you to attack me there!"

Kouta laughed softly in return, replying "Come now old friend, you're not old enough yet that a joke of this level would get you that wound up!"

'If only you knew…' Sarutobi thought sadly, feeling every year of his life in his weary bones. It had been a long time since a young man, barely old enough to be worthy of the title and a Hokage had first met one another and somehow become acquaintances, and perhaps Kouta was unaware of just how harsh the impact of time could be with his relative youth to the old man who now wearily sat before him.

"Hiruzen?" Kouta asked softly, his brows rose in surprise at the sudden lapse in the old man's attention. The Hokage quickly shook off his dark melancholic mood, before indicating for Kouta to continue.

"Well, I already intended to stay here until Naruto completes his goal of becoming Hokage, I have an interest in seeing what he will do with this village. I wish to be witness to what he can achieve." Kouta explained, casually gesturing towards the view from the windows, before finishing "When he has attained his dream, I shall return to my travels once more, but until then, I shall be relying on your hospitality, Hokage-san."

Sarutobi nodded in return, smiling warmly at how well things had proceeded. He had expected at the very least a fierce argument to settle the issue, but not only did Kouta agree, but he did so willingly. However, Sarutobi braced himself once more, for it was inevitable that this next question would cause a confrontation. Just in case, Hiruzen raised his hands up into the seal of the Rat before him, using a small amount of chakra to activate the privacy seals set up within his office, designed to seal all noise within from being heard without.

With the arrangements thus made, the Hokage drew a deep breath before saying "There is one more issue…"

Surprise flashed across Kouta's features as he heard this. He assumed since he had already agreed to stay in the village there could be no greater problem that would require his attention. However, he waited patiently as the Hokage steeled himself, before finally saying.

"…in order to remain as Naruto's Guardian, in order to stop the Council from trying to separate you two… you will be required to join Konoha as a Ninja."

For a long time there was silence between the two, Hokage staring at Sage in complete silence.

Downstairs, the personal secretary of the Hokage was in a surprisingly good mood as she drunk her coffee. Thanks to the *guest*, the Hokage had given her an extended break from duties, and for the last hour she hadn't been required to do any sorting, filing or arranging meetings. It was an incredibly rare break and she was enjoying it to the maximum, her only order to make sure nobody disturbed the Hokage unless it was urgent.

But this beautifully calm moment was ruined as she suddenly winced painfully. However, after a second, she realised she couldn't for the life of her think why she did. It was as if she had heard somebody shout unbelievably loudly, as if her ears had been almost blown out by the volume of it. However, try as she might, she couldn't hear anything other than the faint noise of the wind blowing past the shutters in the nearby window.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, that's a wrap! Again, sorry for it being so short, but RL has been bad for me, and I haven't found time to write or inspiration. Sorry if Ino seem's OOC, I wasn't sure how to portray her at all. Again, if anybody has any critics or advice, please don't hesitate to review, every bit of help is liked! Just be polite about any criticism though, no insults for no reason please!<strong>

**Next chapter will have the first battle between Sasuke and Naruto, I have actually already written it out, just need to touch it up and include the events leading to and from the fight. As for Kouta, he will be joining Konoha as a ninja temporarily (theoreticaly, since Naruto becoming Hokage would probably spell the end of the story, so for all intents and purposes it might as well be permenantly lol) As for his starting Rank, it most likely will be Toukubetsu Jounin, the same rank as Anko. This makes him a lower rank than Kakashi or Gai, but that will be due to the fact that Jounin need to have specialism in multiple areas.**

**Anyhow, sorry for short chapter, and see you all next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello everyone, been a bit of a while but life has been a pain in the ass for me, so my apologies XP. Anyhow before you begin I must apologise if this chapter is not up to scratch, it took quite a lot of effort and it was rather difficult for me to write. I half considered just scrapping it and restarting, but that would be a waste of 20 pages of work.**

**Now, as I said before there will be a fight in this chapter. Let me just forwarn this is my very first Naruto style battle to have written so don't expect anything amazing. I've also made the battle nice and simple, very few *flashy* moments except for the last. The reason for it is that this is a pre-Gennin fight, and it would be ridiculous to do a really high level battle at that grade. There was no preparation of traps since this was a *Sparring* match and general use of jutsu has been limited for the same reason. I should also warn that Naruto will be holding back, he's not aiming to totally crush Sasuke, but to get a feel for the standard of his fellow pupils.**

**Oh one more, i've modified the relationship between Ino and Sasuke. Rather than the normal Fangirlish head over heels for Sasuke crud, i've simplified it down so that the main reason Ino is after Sasuke is purely to beat Sakura. I should also add that I really don't like Sasuke, hate his charecter, however I will try to give him some dues, but I must apologise if at any time I seem to be *Sasuke-bashing*, it's unavoidable if as a writer you hate a charecter. I'll try to do my best to balance him somewhat later, but since he wont be on the same Gennin team as Naruto, I fortunatly wont have to do all that much.**

**Now, onto review replies!**

**Mzr90: Thanks and I get what your saying as well, although I don't have any experience with writing in *gossipy* charecters (the whole concept of *Gossip* is kinda alien to me -.-), i'll try my best.**

**EDelta88: Ah righty, I got what you mean now. Sorry for the lack of action, hopefully this chapter will suffice!**

**Tristan76: Hot damn, that's a load of brilliant ideas right there 0.0 thanks dude! Anyhow, while your advice is awesome, you wont see the majority of it until the actual council meeting, so it will be skipped over for this chapter, but i'll make sure to include some of those amazing idea's later in the actual meeting in later chapters, thanks for the aid!**

**LincDawg: Don't you just hate it when that happens? My internet crashes loads too -.-, anyhow thanks for the positive support!**

**elyzmaki: Thanks, and i'll try to make sure I update soon!**

**Thanks all for the support, and again don't hesitate to review with critical aid, all help (constructive criticism or support) will be accounted and used, although flamers will be ignored outright so please refrain from simply burning.**

**And now, on with the chapter!**

* * *

><p>"Your serious, he does nothing but eat constantly?" Naruto laughed out as he grinned widely, listening to the tales told to him by the blonde girl now sitting beside him, also laughing as she tried to continue talking.<p>

After he had gotten bored of regaling his tales (much to his audience of two's disappointment), Naruto had begged the girl to tell him what the rest of their classmates were like, desperate to catch up as fast as he could. Fortunately for him, it seemed Ino was the gossip girl of the class, and although much of what she said flew over his head, he was steadily starting to memorise what he wanted to know.

"Yeah, he literally can't go more than a minute without eating something, I mean just look!" Ino said, pointing away towards the opposite side of the playground. Following the motion, Naruto burst out laughing again as indeed, only about thirty meters away, there the Akamichi was with a massive bag of potato chips, munching eagerly even as he was chatting to the lazy boy leaning against the wall watching the clouds.

"So; pineapple is Shikamaru, puppy is Kiba, shade's is….is…" Naruto muttered to himself, desperately trying to memorize his class mate's names as fast as he could but once again faltering on a particular one for easily the sixth time in a row.

"Shino, Aburame Shino, god are you always this slow?" Ino asked exasperatedly, causing Naruto to whip about, an embarrassed flush on his face as he exclaimed "Shaddup! I just can't remember that one guy's name, I got the rest of them down, but shades name just isn't sticking!"

Honestly, Ino couldn't blame him, for some reason Shino stuck out so little that it was easy to forget who he was; even trying to remember him was difficult for some reason. If it weren't for her habit of listening to gossip from the flower shop where his parents sometimes bought flowers and asked her whether people were getting on with him in class, she would also probably forget he even existed, but she was having fun picking on the blonde and listening to his aggravated groans from trying to memorise the silent boy's identity so she didn't tell him this.

Naruto just grunted in annoyance, before continuing "white is Hinata…fatso is-hRMGH!"

As soon as she heard him say the name, Ino instantly leaned over, shocking the whiskered boy by clapping a hand tightly over his mouth as across the way, said boy suddenly stood ramrod straight, almost dropping his potato chips as he swung his head about, as if to search for something. Even though they had been nowhere near by, it was as if Chouji could sense those who would dare use that name against him.

Beside him, Shikamaru interrupted his cloud gazing for a second, fixing a lazy eye on Chouji as he asked "What's up?"

Both Ino and Naruto held their breath together as Chouji continued glancing about, before slowly muttering "Must have been mistaken…"

Ino let out a slow pent up breath as she finally started to release Naruto's face, which was turning slightly red from being grabbed by her, although whether it was from her tight grip or embarrassment from the girls touch was up in the air to say the least. However, at the last second as she was about to lift her hand away, she accidentally brushed against the sensitive whisker like birthmarks on his face.

It was fortunate for Naruto's newly garnered respect and reputation with Ino that she was too distracted by her fear of Chouji's reaction to Naruto's words that she missed Naruto's involuntary reaction.

As her hand had brushed against those sensitive birthmarks, Naruto had seemingly leaned into the touch, eyes closing slightly as he…purred…?

However, it had only been for a single second, and as soon as her hand lifted away, the involuntary reaction had stopped, and it seemed not even Naruto, the one who had purred, noticed it happening. However even if these two hadn't noticed it, the eavesdroppers pure white eyes widened in surprise at what she had just seen, and a single unbidden thought floated through Hinata Hyuuga's mind.

'…_Kawai_…'

Back with Ino, the blonde shook her head, a hand pressed to her face as if to recover from what had just happened, before she fixed a glare on Naruto that made him jump in fear. Pointing over at Chouji, a deadly serious expression evident on her face, Ino warned "If you value your life; then don't ever say that word in Chouji's proximity in future!"

"H-huh, why not?" Naruto asked in reply, at which Ino internally struggled between the impulse to either face palm at his stupidity, or simply slap him for the same reason. Settling on just face palming herself, Ino explained slowly, as if she was dealing with a simpleton "Because Chouji will make a pancake out of you, that's why!"

Naruto just grumbled something that sounded like he doubted the fat kid's chances of being able to do it, but after a few seconds just shrugged, before glancing about the playground, trying to spot if there was any others from their class he recognised. Seeing a certain pair in the distance (or more a stalker following another boy), Naruto continued "So pinkey is…Sakura?"

Ino nodded, before venomously adding "Forehead girl would also work, but pinkey is more obvious I guess..." Naruto was surprised for a second, before remembering what had happened when he had first entered the classroom that morning. Glancing back in Sakura's direction, he realised he recognised the one being stalked by not only Sakura, but a load more girls who he couldn't recognise. It was the neighbour that his _Mizu Bunshin_ had soaked the worst, Sasuke.

"So, the broody dude with the ducks ass hairstyle is Sasuke then?" Naruto asked to confirm, before realising just what he had actually said and to whom. Instantly Naruto went on the defence, covering his head as quickly as he could with his arms before the girl beside him could attack him. However, Ino just looked over in Sasuke's direction, her face showing some surprise as she muttered "Ducks ass? Y'know, now that you mention it…"

Naruto stopped his wincing as he slowly pulled his arms back from protecting his head, surprised and glad that the platinum blonde beside him hadn't attacked him in response to insulting the boy she obviously liked.

Then it suddenly dawned on him, why didn't she attack him?

"Erm, Ino…-chan?" Naruto asked hesitantly, chancing his arm in adding the friendlier suffix to her name.

The only reaction from the girl who was still staring at the boy in the distance was a "Hm?"

"Well, what's up with you, Sakura and Sasuke then?" Naruto asked

Ino just turned from looking at Sasuke to give him a blank look, as if he'd just asked something idiotic, asking sarcastically "What do you think?"

Naruto actually thought in it for a second, before replying "Well, at first I thought you two might be after that Sasuke guy…"

Ino just nodded, pointing at Sakura as she said "Yep, me and forehead girl over there are after Sasuke." Hearing this caused Naruto's ego to deflate slightly. In some distant part of his mind, he had hoped that the Yamanaka girl had warmed up to him because perhaps she had liked him in some way. However, hearing that she already had another guy she liked was slightly depressing.

Ignorant to the spiralling mood of the boy beside her, Ino pumped her fist in the air, eyes almost on fire as she exclaimed "Yep, I'm definitely going to beat Forehead Girl, Sasuke is as good as mine!"

Something about what she said sounded odd, and Naruto looked back up at her in confusion, asking "Hold on, your after him to beat Sakura?"

Once again, Naruto got hit with the patronizing glare as Ino rolled her eyes, answering "Duh, why else?"

"…because you might…like Sasuke?"

Naruto didn't expect the reaction from Ino that he got. Ino actually burst out laughing, having to clap a hand over her own mouth to try and keep the noise down so that neither the moody boy or the fawning girl would overhear.

"Me…hahaha…and…Sasuke…pfft!" Ino tried to say something between her laughter, but it was indistinct. Somehow, Naruto got the gist that she was taking the mick out of what he said, which caused him to go red in embarrassment and annoyance, shouting back "Hey, what else was I supposed to think!"

However, Ino just kept on laughing at his expense for a good while. Naruto wanted to get angrier at her for it, but after seeing the bright smile of mirth as she tried to supress her giggles, Naruto couldn't help but smile slightly himself, bringing the edge off of his annoyance with her.

As she finally managed to calm down enough, actually having to wipe a tear from her eye as the last fit of giggles subsided, Ino looked back over at the blonde boy, before explaining "Look, maybe he might have been interesting years ago, but unless you're as crazy as Forehead Girl or as brainless as those other fangirls, you can only handle so much moodiness. I got bored of it years ago, I'm only doing it to beat Forehead Girl!"

However, she quickly added "There's also the pro of being known as the girl that finally got the heartthrob of the school."

"Heartthrob?" Naruto asked in disbelief, before turning to scrutinize the Uchiha. Sure, Sasuke was slightly taller than average, something that instantly ticked Naruto off as he hated noticing that he was still slightly short for his age. Beside the height, he just couldn't think of anything else interesting about Sasuke's looks, certainly not enough to draw that massive crowd of girls that seemed to be tailing the boy as he…

Walked straight up to where Naruto was sitting, his eyes dead set on Naruto's own.

"Ha?" Naruto blurted out in surprise as he realised the guy he had just been scrutinizing was actually right in front of him, looking down at him with that strange stare of his.

'I don't like this guy…'

He couldn't put his finger on it, but in that split second that Naruto looked up at Sasuke's face, he realised he didn't like the Uchiha. There was something about how he looked, like one who was simply putting up with what was around him, as if even looking down at Naruto was nothing. The blonde may have even preferred to have seen a sneer on the boy's face, disgust like so many of the other villagers radiated at him. But it wasn't disgust, contempt, friendliness, anything.

They looked like dead eyes to the blonde. Not only that, Naruto got the distinct feeling that Sasuke wasn't even looking at him, but through him. It was as if even though Sasuke had deliberately gone out of his way to target Naruto, it wasn't really the blonde who the Uchiha had his eyes set on.

As that frozen second of time finally ticked over, everything returned back to real time. Ino suddenly leapt up, an expression akin to happy idiocy spread across her face as she cried out "Sasuke-kun, you came over to see me?"

"LIKE HELL SASUKE-KUN WOULD SEE YOU!" a certain pink haired girl roared out far louder than Naruto would have ever believed possible from such a frail looking girl, causing Naruto to cringe as he tried to shield his ears. For one second, he finally spotted some semblance of emotion in the broody Uchiha, a flicker of irritancy from the loud shout, but it was gone just as fast.

As the two girls started bickering and arguing, shouting insults at one another, Sasuke finally spoke.

"You, you are Uzumaki, correct?"

Naruto was once again struck by the feeling that he wouldn't like this guy, however unlike before, he knew why this time. That voice just pissed him off straight away. It was low and sounded cool, even as Naruto realised and got ticked off by this fact, the group of fan girls who had been stalking Sasuke (minus two who were nearly devolving into the mother of all cat fights) swooned at just hearing that voice.

Naruto finally started to believe why it was Sasuke had so many followers and admirers, his voice alone literally eschewed pride and confidence. Even if he seemed like the almost emo-type, there was no doubt that Sasuke Uchiha was confident in himself, overbearingly so.

Annoyed by this fact, Naruto replied defensively "Who wants to know?"

Sasuke's pitch black eyes literally bore into Naruto's own as he bluntly replied "Uchiha Sasuke"

Naruto already knew who Sasuke was; he even knew the importance of the Uchiha name, quickly figuring that was the reason behind the almost arrogant pride he could hear in Sasuke's voice. Those who came from powerful clans often believed themselves Kami's gift to the world.

Picking his body up from where he had been sitting, Naruto stood face to face with Sasuke, glad that the difference between their heights that he had noticed earlier wasn't quite as bad as he imagined, a matter of an inch or two only. As he was about to ask what Sasuke wanted, he noticed the boy's eyes flick up and down his own body, obviously sizing Naruto up. Deep in his thoughts, the blonde prayed it was only for threat assessment, and not because the Uchiha's obvious disinterest in his fan girls meant a different interest.

That thought scared the hell out of Naruto, so much so that he paled slightly. Sasuke seemed to notice this, assuming it was some kind of fear from the blonde, perhaps from recognizing the difference between the last descendant of the Uchiha and himself.

'Oh crap, what the hell is he smirking at?' Naruto panicked mentally, his trepidation increasing as he noticed the change in Sasuke's expression. It took a lot to try and keep his voice from squeaking in what could have been real fear of the Uchiha as he asked defensively "What do you want with me?"

"Uzumaki, I want to fight you." Sasuke challenged his smirk increasing slightly as he expected Naruto to quail under the challenge, just like all the other pathetic students in their class.

However Naruto did the inverse, breathing out a sigh of relief that his fears had been unfounded, Sasuke had only come to challenge him to a fight. 'Wait…' Naruto realised out of slight confusion, turning back to look up at Sasuke, asking "err, why?"

"I want to test my strength against yours, now will you fight me?" Sasuke replied coolly, his voice full of confidence. Naruto even saw a spark in the Uchiha's eyes for a second, before they returned to their almost dead look.

Naruto barely needed to consider it, an eager smile filled with excitement spreading across his face. He hadn't expected a chance to spar against any of the others in his year as early as the very first day, and no less than the supposed number one of the year was asking him to fight, like hell would he turn down such an offer.

* * *

><p>The two boys stared each other down from across the chosen battlefield, neither boy moving a single muscle, both watching for any weakness in their opponent. When the news spread that the new kid and the number one were about to fight, it had gathered nigh on the entire student year to watch. Even now, some of the kids were placing bets on how the outcome of the battle would go. Unfortunatly for Naruto, most of the bets were how long it would be until Sasuke beat him, but there was the odd newly enamoured fan girl (recent traitors of the Sasuke fandom who had been wooed by the blondes amazing looks) who was betting that Naruto would win.<p>

However, now as the two faced off against each other, the crowd of fellows who had gathered to watch collectively held their breath in anticipation. Even Sakura and Ino stopping their cheering of their obvious favourite as they were awed by the tension between the two boys, so unusually strong for children of their age, the playground which would normally be alive with activity deathly silent. As the seconds passed, a small gust of wind kicked up the dust and leaves that scattered the grounds, the leaves flying about in the eddies of the wind before falling slowly down to earth once more.

As the last leaf finally touched earth, this was the unbidden sign for time to restart as both boys moved as one. Suddenly the air between them was a storm of metal crashing against metal, each boy's hands a blur as shuriken and kunai met one another in mid-air with amazing accuracy, each kunai deflected down to earth by another, each shuriken sent flying in opposite directions as they crashed into one another.

Even before all the projectiles had fallen to the earth, 6 Kunai and 4 Shuriken thrown from Sasuke's hands and a matching number thrown by Naruto, both boys kicked against the earth hard, launching themselves through the rain of falling projectiles to attack each other head on.

Sasuke's attack came first, right fist drawn back even before they had closed the distance fully before the punch was aimed for Naruto's face. However, Naruto easily blocked the blow with his opposing forearm, stomping hard on the ground for support before kicking his right leg forward, aiming a powerful kick for Sasuke's ribs. Sasuke ducked in slightly to block the kick with his left forearm, before dropping further, aiming a low spin kick to sweep Naruto's standing leg from under him.

However, Naruto snapped his right leg back, before leaping back, away from Sasuke, jumping above Sasuke's leg sweep. As he back flipped in mid-air, Naruto pulled several more shuriken from his leg pouch halfway through the flip before throwing them at the still ducking Sasuke to stop him from countering. In retaliation, Sasuke quickly drew a Kunai from inside his pouch, knocking the singular Shuriken that Naruto had deliberately aimed at his leg from mid-air before avoiding the other scattered shuriken, quickly spinning the Kunai about in his grip before throwing it at the point where Naruto would land.

Grinning fiercely, Naruto landed softly as he raised a hand up to his shoulder to grab something, before his face fell as his hand closed about empty air, realising dumbly that he didn't have a sword strapped there any more as he watched the Kunai he had planned to cut out of the air fly at him. With a noise that suspiciously sounded like *Yikes!*, Naruto barely managed to twist his body out of the way before the Kunai would have hit him dead centre in the chest, instead impacting the tree behind him before disappearing into the grass, the practice Kunai's edge too blunt to actually imbed itself into the tree. However, nobody in the audience commented on the strange noise Naruto let slip or the fact that he barely dodged the Kunai. Instead, their jaws were almost hitting the ground at the amazing display of skill and speed between the two boys.

'Now THAT would have been embarrassing…' Naruto thought, mentally face palming himself for his own stupidity at forgetting his sword had been confiscated. While he knew the chain-link on his vest would have stopped the thrown Kunai from injuring him, he still would have died of embarrassment from making such a stupid mistake. However, he didn't have time to contemplate further as Sasuke charged at him once more. Shaking the thought out of his head, Naruto took his Taijutsu stance again, readying himself to stop Sasuke's charge.

The next minute was a blur of punching and kicking, attack and counter attack as Uchiha and Uzumaki struck out at one another again and again, weapons forgotten as they fought with pure Taijutsu.

'He's kinda good!' Naruto realised eagerly, his grin widening even in the face of the fierce adversary as he wrenched his head to the right, narrowly avoiding a powerful punch from Sasuke. The raven haired boy wasn't holding back in the slightest now, breathing heavily as he exerted as much strength as he could into each attack.

'This dobe…' Sasuke cursed internally as Naruto once again avoided his attacks, the blondes own elbow striking out in a counter, forcing Sasuke to take the impact with his forearm in turn, his own arm going numb from the aggressive strength in Naruto's attacks. 'Why can't I hit him!'

Both of the two boys were as fast as each other, neither able to land a decisive hit, but it was already clear who had the power advantage. Even though Sasuke was starting to sweat from his exertion, putting everything he could behind each attack, Naruto's own moves were every bit as fierce, and unlike Sasuke the blonde wasn't even tiring, his breathing still smooth as instead he was grinning widely as if he was having the time of his life.

Suddenly an attack got through the storm of impacts between the two. Naruto's fist lanced forward, aiming for the centre of Sasuke's chest. Sasuke twisted his body about, with the intention of letting the attack pass before countering once again in the opening created. But as the attack passed, wide from its original mark, the Uchiha's eyes widened as he felt an impact, the attack grazing his torso. It was barely a brush, but it was still a hit, the first of the match. Cursing under his breath, Sasuke abandoned his plan, leaping away from the blonde quickly to gain distance for a respite.

Naruto didn't follow, instead keeping the exact pose from his punch as he watched Sasuke land further away, breathing heavily. If anybody had been looking closely, there was a slight flash of annoyance that passed the blondes features, almost as if something had gone wrong, or if something he expected to happen didn't. However, even if anybody had seen, they would never have guessed the real reason for this slight change and Naruto recovered quickly, correcting his pose as he faced Sasuke once more.

"S-Sasuke-kun?"

Amongst the watching crowd, Sakura whispered this quietly, almost in confusion. The others watching were just as surprised, Chouji having stopped halfway from eating another crisp, his hand hovering in mid-air as he watched in confusion.

Nobody could beat Sasuke, the last scion of the Uchiha clan. This was the unspoken rule amongst the academy students, earned from the numerous sparring matches organized between the students. No matter who faced him, no matter what they tried, Sasuke would defeat them, barely even acknowledging their struggles as he won each battle, his broody face ever impassive as he looked down upon those he defeated as if he couldn't even see them.

But there was no mistaking it. Sasuke had just retreated from his foe. Even if the match hadn't yet been won, nobody before had managed to pressure the Uchiha to the point of retreating. Now, not only was Sasuke glaring balefully at his enemy as he tried to regain his breath, but the new blonde student who had broken Sasuke's unbeaten streak without even breaking a sweat was grinning happily like an idiot. An amazingly strong, good looking idiot, but one none the less.

'That nameless dobe…' Sasuke growled internally as he finally got his breathing back under control. He had not expected much from the blonde boy. Even if, as Naruto claimed, he had been training away from the village, he was still only a normal person. He didn't even have the virtue of a reasonably strong clan technique, he was a nameless dobe.

Compared to that he, Sasuke Uchiha, was the last remaining member of the proud Uchiha, the once strongest and most renowned clan of Konoha. By his birth right, he was superior to any other clan of Konoha, let alone a boy who didn't have a worthy clan to himself.

'…calm down, he's a nobody, I shouldn't get worked up like this…' Sasuke thought to himself as he made an effort to force his body to relax. Getting wound up that this _dobe_ was able to match him in Taijutsu was pointless.

'If, by some miracle he can match me in Taijutsu…' Sasuke thought as he took a deep breath, finally calming himself as he stood up, straight and proud. As he did so, he unclenched his fists, before moving his hands rapidly.

'…I'll show him his place with Ninjutsu!' Sasuke finished, his hands forming the seals he needed for his jutsu.

As Naruto watched, Sasuke's body outline seemingly wavered, before he literally split himself into multiple copies of himself. Within a second, the single enemy had become four, four versions of Sasuke now smirking arrogantly as they faced off against Naruto as each Bunshin drew a Kunai from their respective pouch.

At the sight of her idol finally getting ready to fight again, Sakura got over her earlier shock, instead started cheering, loudly shouting out "Go Sasuke, kick that stupid blondes ass!"

Said blonde sweat dropped slightly, even the three clones of Sasuke and the original himself for whom the cheering was for couldn't help rolling their eyes at the stupid cheering, obviously annoyed at the interruption.

Sakura was quickly joined by numerous other females amongst the crowd, turning the single shout into a tidal wave of cheering for the Uchiha and jeering for the blonde. However, what shocked some of the male portion of the crowd, who had been about to roll their eyes, was a different shout.

"Go Naruto!"

As if to combat the increasing shouting of the Sasuke fandom, the newly started Uzumaki fan girls decided to let their presence be known, trying to drown out the shouts from the opposite fandom. As the cheering got louder, even the guys eventually got pulled into cheering as well, although unlike the female fandom, the cheers for the guys were nearly 100% pro Naruto, the male contingency obviously sick and tired of the previous number one and eager to see the Uchiha toppled from the top spot.

Only four amongst the whole crowd acted differently from the roaring mass. Shino refused to join in the pointless roaring, since he did not wholly care about the outcome of the match and found it illogical to support either in that situation. Shikamaru was the same, but his was purely from sheer laziness, he was watching the match, but couldn't be bothered to join in. Ino hesitated for a second, wanting to cheer for the friendlier boy, but Sakura's obvious support for Sasuke made her join in the Uchiha support, desperate to beat her rival in outshouting her. Hinata on the other hand wanted to join in supporting Naruto, but was too shy to shout, instead barely whispering her stuttered support.

Hearing the support for him, Naruto was emotionally touched, unlike his opponent who was obviously annoyed at the interruption. Putting his happiness at the support aside, Naruto gave one quick pump of his fist in his supporter's general direction before returning his attention to Sasuke.

Sasuke charged instantly, all three clones following with him as the group charged the blonde. Naruto quickly drew several Kunai from within his pouch, his eyes darting across the four enemies, trying to see if there was any anomalies in the clones to tell them apart from the original.

However, no sooner than he tried to identify the real Sasuke, pulling his arm back in preparation to throw, the group of clones converged on one another, their paths crossing each other's rapidly to throw off Naruto's ability to focus solely on the original, Sasuke and his clones smirking confidently as they quickly closed the distance between themselves and Naruto.

"Not bad _teme_…!" Naruto half complimented as he leapt away from the group, trying to gain distance for an idea of what to do next. As he did so, he noticed something interesting about the group of Sasuke's. As he realised what it meant, he couldn't help but grin again.

Naruto was really enjoying this. It had been ages since he had been able to spar with any person of the same age as him, and even if it was nowhere near as challenging as his practices with his Shishou, Sasuke wasn't that bad even if annoyingly arrogant. While Naruto was still holding back some from his foe, Sasuke was still giving him a decent challenge and Naruto relished the opportunity to compare his skills against the supposedly legendary skills of the Uchiha.

As Naruto was about to land, his own hands flashed through a series of hand seals. Sasuke watched the sequence Naruto used, instantly recognising the technique he was preparing as the _Kawarimi no jutsu_, and realised that Naruto was going to use the technique to avoid the group attack.

No sooner than Naruto finished, the Uchiha clones converged on him instantly, moving about the blonde to surround him, ready to charge in to claim victory.

In a surrounding formation, it becomes hard to tell where an attack will come from, for nobody can see behind them, making it a perfect blind spot. As such, it can be presumed that the attack coming from behind him would be Sasuke's real attack. However, at the same time, it could be any of them, for if it is most obvious that the attack would come from behind, then to be unpredictable, a shinobi would take a different angle of attack.

But Sasuke was thinking outside of the box, he wasn't even amongst the clones. Instead of being the real Sasuke and three clones, it was four clones of Sasuke that surrounded the blonde. When Sasuke had made the clones converge their running paths, he had used the _Bunshin no jutsu _again, using the clones to cover his seal sequence from Naruto's view. He created a fourth clone to take his place, something no other student in their year could manage thanks to their limited chakra capacity, and as such something nobody could have predicted. Sasuke had directed the clones to move close to the crowd of onlookers and using the motion to cover his own, he had dived into the crowd to hide himself, moving amongst the group carefully so he could ambush Naruto when he tried to deal with the clones.

Now, he was in position to attack Naruto. However, since Naruto had prepared the Kawarimi no jutsu, he couldn't be sure where Naruto would appear again. As such, Sasuke quickly decided to attack first from his position, before Naruto would use the Substitution. Acting quickly, he sent a command through the chakra connecting him to the clones to delay their attack for a second, believing Naruto intended to substitute when they hit him. As the clones finally penned in the blonde, the Uchiha let loose with multiple shuriken.

Several of the onlookers cried out in surprise as shuriken burst through the gaps between them, several fans turning about in outrage to find out who was trying to sabotage the match.

As the blunt stars flew for Naruto's blind spot, all four clones smirks grew greater, victory was theirs.

One Naruto Uzumaki turned slightly away from the clone before him, barely a fractional movement, but it revealed one fact to the real Uchiha amongst the crowd, who was watching the stars home in on him.

A wide grin.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt a weird sensation of some sort, a strange feeling of being pulled forcibly from all directions. Before he could figure out what it was, his fast senses saw the shuriken in mid-air once more, but something was different.

They were now flying at him, as Sasuke's eyes registered the crowd of onlookers behind the stars, one Uzumaki Naruto's cheshire grin plastered across his face from where he stood between Kiba and Shino.

Time seemed to freeze for the Uchiha as he realised what had happened. Naruto had somehow, some way, seen through his plan. The reason why he was now standing, several shuriken flying for him rather than his enemy, was because Sasuke was standing now where Naruto had been only moments before.

Naruto had used the _Kawarimi no Jutsu_ to substitute the real Sasuke from amidst the crowd.

It was too late to dodge; Sasuke was forced to cross his arms before his body to stop the Shuriken from tagging any vital spots. Instead, the blunted edges impacted on his arms and stomach with enough force to sting, causing red welts to spring up on both his arms even as they bounced away, clattering to the ground.

With the caster injured and distracted the four clones, now surrounding their master rather than their original target automatically dispersed, leaving Sasuke standing alone, slowly uncrossing his arms as he resisted the urge to wince in pain from the bruises.

Nearly everybody fell completely silent in shock and surprise.

Amidst this new stunned silence, even Shikamaru had to silently give the praise where it was due. As Naruto pushed passed the crowd to face Sasuke again, Shikamaru analysed what it was that happened easily.

Sasuke had forgotten one of the basics, and Naruto had grasped it in mid battle and expertly turned it on the Uchiha. The clones Sasuke had made were each almost perfect, every detail right where it needed to be, Shikamaru doubted that anybody would have been able to easily grasp the difference between the clones and their original.

Sasuke's plan had also been good, using the jutsu a second time to cover his own exit from the group was a sound plan, and the Uchiha's execution had also been sound, nobody had noticed him joining the crowd.

However the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ had one fatal flaw. While in normal combat situations in areas like forests, there were multiple obstacles that could have covered this flaw, but their match was in an open field, and the sun was shining brightly down. The clones had no shadows, and Naruto must have noticed that no one in the offensive group had a shadow, so the blonde had seen Sasuke's plan and come up with a counter for it.

'Man, I figured he was just an idiot but that wasn't bad at all…' Shikamaru thought to himself as he watched the pair face off again.

Sasuke was silently raging in anger as he saw that idiotic grin on Naruto's face again.

'Damn it! How can I, an Uchiha, one of the elite, be losing to this clan less dobe?'

Even now, Sasuke could see it in his opponent's eyes. Naruto believed he had won and the battle was already his, Naruto believed he was the stronger of the two of them and that enraged the Uchiha.

"This is not over!" Sasuke shouted out defiantly with a roar, as his hands moved rapidly. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw seal after seal formed rapidly by Sasuke's hands, before he stopped, his hands held together on one last seal, fingers interlaced together with index finger and middle finger pointed together upwards. Sasuke held this seal as he locked eyes with his enemy, eye's blazing with an emotion Naruto couldn't recognise as Sasuke drew sharp breath after breath.

While he didn't recognise the jutsu from just the seals Sasuke's hands had literally spelled out, there was definitely no mistaking it as one of the three academy level jutsu, and there was no way to mistake that last seal Sasuke was still holding before him.

'That's the Tiger seal; that means it's probably a Katon he's going to use!' Naruto realised with shock as the cheering starting once again from the Sasuke faction in the crowd, only a handful aside Naruto were actually fast enough at reading hand movements to realise Sasuke was most definitely not preparing an academy jutsu.

'What's going on? No pre-Gennin student should have the chakra reserves necessary for elemental manipulation already…' Shikamaru thought to himself as he brought his attention away from the clouds and to the now dangerous battle between the two.

In response, Naruto glared back at Sasuke, his grin lost as he considered what to do next. Even if that last seal meant it was probably an offensive Katon, there was no way to be sure, and the blonde knew he had very few defensive jutsu at his call.

Taking a gamble that Sasuke's jutsu would be a Katon, Naruto quickly decided what to do. With this decision, he flicked a hand up to his blue jacket, unbuttoning the second pocket on the left breast as he quickly drew a small object from within. What he pulled out looked like a soldier pill at first but was slightly translucent with a strange blue tint, a small kanji written on the sphere's surface, _Mizu_.

'Without any additional water nearby to use, I don't have the control yet to use this without a little additional help…' Naruto thought internally as he popped the sphere into his mouth, clamping it between his back teeth but not biting down on the object. With his preparations complete, Naruto's hands started to form seals at a rapid pace. Sasuke didn't respond to this or use his jutsu, holding his hands in the Tiger seal as if waiting to see what Naruto would do in turn.

Tiger-Snake-Rat-Snake-Tiger

In comparison to the sequence of seals Sasuke had used, the jutsu Naruto readied used less. However, as Naruto ended the sequence of seals his hands had rapidly flashed through, his technique ended with the same seal that Sasuke's hands formed, both boys now mirroring each other's stance but opposing one another, the only difference between the two being that Sasuke had his trademark sneer written on his features, while Naruto was keeping his mouth slightly open, being careful not to bite down on the sphere before time.

Sasuke let out a short bark of laughter, his features twisting into a sneer as he mistook the intentions of the blonde, taunting back "You really think you can beat me in Ninjutsu? That's the Tiger seal, so that's probably a Katon as well; do you really think you, a nameless _dobe_, can beat an Uchiha with fire?"

At these words, it finally dawned on the rest of the still cheering group that something very dangerous was about to happen right in front of them.

"Somebody get Iruka-sensei!" "Kyaaa!" "What are they doing?"

These and numerous other shouts were audible from the crowd of onlookers, now slightly panicked that a clash of actual ninjutsu was imminent between the two combatants, the majority of them now backing away as fast as they could from the pair of boys to avoid getting caught up in whatever Jutsu was about to be unleashed.

However, neither Sasuke or Naruto could hear them, eye's only on each other, Sasuke's burning with rage and pride, angry that he had been humiliated thus far in combat and determined to prove to this upstart that he was no match for the skills of the Uchiha. Naruto on the other hand was focusing only on his opponents movements, waiting for the sign that the Uchiha was about to attack.

As one once more, both boys moved simultaneously, mimicking each other's movements as they both drew an incredibly deep breath, hands releasing the Tiger seal as they each made a ring with the thumb and index finger of their right hand, placing it before their mouths, as their lips started to form the shouted words of their techniques.

Both spoke at the same time, but Sasuke's technique was seemingly the faster of the two.

"**Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"**

As those words were shouted out, Sasuke finally expelled the breath he had taken, a stream of fire expelled from between his lips as he breathed the chakra from his system out, forming a large flaming fireball right before him, one that flickered and pulsed with its intensity, burning the air around the two combatants with its ferocity. Within moments of the fireball solidifying, it was sent roaring forwards straight for the blonde whiskered boy, propelled by the steady stream of fire flying from Sasuke's mouth.

As this fireball flew straight for Naruto, there was a mixture of shouts of amazement and wonder at the might of the jutsu, and in one or two cases, screams of fear as it threatened to engulf him instantly. However, Naruto didn't even flinch as the inferno bore down upon him. Instead, he finally bit down with his teeth, cracking the sphere inside his mouth which strangely shattered akin to glass as if it was hollow as he expelled his own breath, shouting out the words of his technique.

"**Suiton: Suijinheki!"**

Although his jutsu sequence had ended with the Tiger symbol, it was the inverse of a Katon, a Suiton. Water took the place of Fire that everybody had expected from Naruto as within a heartbeat, the chakra within his body amplified the water within his mouth, as Naruto breathed out an incredibly powerful stream of water, aiming it straight for the heart of the huge fireball.

Water and Fire impacted one another with incredible force, the stream of water exploding into almost a wall as it smashed against the fireball Sasuke had summoned, sending a fountain spray of heated water all about the impact zone as the jutsu clashed, the wall of water pushing back against the huge fireball as Naruto continued to expel the powerful stream from his own body. On the opposite side, Sasuke cursed to himself as he poured as much chakra as he could into the technique, willing the stream of flames to intensify, the fireball roaring ever greater with furious intensity as Sasuke tried to push through the wall of water that threatened to douse his Katon by pure force.

However, as Shikamaru could have told anybody had they not all been too dazed by the amazing spectacle before them, Water is Fire's weakness; there was no way an offensive Katon technique could ever hope to overcome a defensive Suiton technique unless there was a massive difference in the chakra used. However, no matter how much Sasuke tried to pour his chakra into the technique, he had absolutely no hope of defeating Naruto's seemingly huge chakra supply. Combined with his technique being on the wrong side of the elemental table and he was destined to lose.

Eventually, Sasuke was forced to stop spitting out the stream of fire, the chakra in his system running low as he could not support the technique further, the fireball losing its integrity as the wall of water devoured the flames, water boiling and hissing as it transformed into a massive cloud of steam that, thanks to the winds direction, engulfed Naruto, hiding him from view as Naruto stopped his own technique, having bested Sasuke's completely.

As the steam started to be pushed away, Sasuke shouted out in anger at the silhouette of Naruto, drawing a Kunai between each gap of his fingers before throwing the storm of eight Kunai straight at Naruto.

However, having been hidden in the steam cloud, coughing as he tried to get a clear breath from the backwash of his own technique Naruto didn't see them coming. There was several loud impacts and a cry of pain as the cloud of steam finally started to disperse, the majority of it blown to the right by the wind, revealing Naruto within.

Having been unable to see the attack, Naruto had seemingly taken the attacks badly, a cut in the centre of his forehead showing where one of the Kunai had hit him, showing what would have been a fatal injury in a real life battle. Naruto was seemingly frozen in shock, as if the impact had stunned him.

However, even as Sasuke thought arrogantly that with this obviously fatal injury, he had finally put the dobe in his place; he hadn't noticed that the cloud of steam had been blown by the wind so that the majority of the dense mist was pushed close by him. Suddenly the cloud of steam seemingly exploded outwards, a shadow of a boy erupting from within the mist, his blue jacket heavily damp with steam.

Before Sasuke even had time to think, Naruto had covered the distance between himself and Sasuke with a single bound, a fist tightly curled as he slammed it straight into Sasuke's face. The stunned Uchiha didn't even him time to react or dodge, the meteoric impact of Naruto's punch on his cheek sent him hurtling backwards off his feet. This time he didn't manage to recover, instead crashing into the ground painfully as the person who struck him stood back up straight, his blonde ponytail damp from hiding within the steam he had created as nearby the injured Naruto exploded into a pool of water, revealing it to be nothing more than a _Mizu Bunshin_.

It took a few seconds for Sasuke to finally stopped tumbling, landing in an almost pathetic curled up heap on the concrete, almost losing his grasp on consciousness as his head rang from the force of the impact.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura almost screamed in panic as she burst from the throng of the crowd, running straight for the fallen Uchiha. Seeing her rival charging, Ino could only spare Naruto one amazed glance at the strength he had shown, before her instincts kicked in and she quickly chased after the pink haired girl, determined to not let the girl get the advantage in their battle for Sasuke's attention. They were shortly followed by the rest of the Sasuke fangirl community, several throwing looks that could kill at Naruto as they ran to their downed idol.

After a couple more seconds of dazed amazement, the dams broke as just about every male in the year roared out their cheers as an entire mob of students surged forwards, startling Naruto who barely had a moment to cry out "What the-?" before he was mass mobbed by his fellow classmates.

One of the few who held back from doing so was concentrating hard as he tried to figure out just what had happened, his hands clasped before him in a strange pose as he thought.

'Well, it's straight out obvious what happened, but how is what's interesting…' Shikamaru mused silently as he watched a struggling to escape blonde been thrown up in the air by the jubilant gang of students, eager to show their gratitude for somebody finally topping the Uchiha despite him crying out his protests as he tried to escape the manhandling.

Naruto had used a powerful Suiton to block Sasuke's Katon jutsu, then used the cloud of steam to his advantage, creating a Mizu Bunshin to cover his movements. It was obvious that he had done this before Sasuke had tried to attack him, since there was no mark on Naruto from the Uchiha's last ditch effort. Naruto had even gone so far as to test the direction of the wind, to makre sure he was as close as possible before he launched his last attack. What was interesting was how in hell a Gennin had managed to manipulate enough water to use these techniques, considering the lack of any water in the form of rain or other sources.

'That pill has to be the key…' Shikamaru deduced quickly. He had assumed the object Naruto had taken from the pockets of his jacket to be something akin to a Soldier Pill, something to restore chakra reserves quickly, but now he thought back, there had been something odd about the object…

However, his ruminations, the cheering crowds celebrations to Naruto, the fan girls pandering to Sasuke and just about all other active thought was interrupted by one throaty roar.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!"

The crowd of suporters around both Sasuke and Naruto almost flew away from them in fear of their sensei's as a burst of smoke signalled the end of a _Shunshin_ technique, revealing the scar faced Iruka within, a vein on his forehead threatening to explode in the face of his shouting. What surprised Naruto however was the second chuunin who had arrived with Iruka, a man with shoulder length white hair who Naruto hadn't seen before.

"NARUTO, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THIS TIME!" Iruka bellowed out at him with a roar when he saw the state Sasuke was in on the floor. Naruto turned, panic slightly setting in as he tried to think of a way to get out of having decked one of his fellow students, but a smooth voice cut in first, surprising Naruto as it said "Now, now Iruka, it just looks to me like our top student wanted to test the new kid out, and found him to be a bit much to handle."

Naruto looked up in surprise at the new Chuunin's face, the white haired man smiling slightly as he faced the scar faced Iruka. The teacher hesitated for half a second in hearing this Chuunin brush off what had clearly been a dangerous fight as nothing, before saying quickly "Mizuki, unrestricted fighting without an instructor supervising-!"

However Mizuki just waved amicably, smiling as he looked down at Naruto cheerfully, cutting in "But Naruto is clearly new here, and probably was unaware of the rules regarding needing a supervisor for sparring sessions."

Naruto just blinked in confusion slightly. It felt weird having an adult stand up for him, Kouta had looked after him for years, but Kouta wasn't one of the Konoha inhabitants, it just felt odd for any one of the people who he assumed all seemingly hated him to now defend him. However, even as Mizuki smiled down at him, something felt…off, for some reason he couldn't think of, something felt odd about Mizuki helping him. It could have just been the strangeness of having a Konoha Ninja being kind, but he wasn't sure, some instinct seemed to be niggling at the back of his mind, telling him to be wary around this white haired man.

"It doesn't matter; it's obvious that you're not meant to pick fights with the other students!" Iruka replied vehemently, sweeping an arm in Sasuke's general direction as if to accent his argument. Sasuke literally growled in response, picking himself up gingerly as the two chuunin watched at him, surprising Naruto by glaring up at Iruka as if he was annoyed with the sensei's interruption, replying "It was just a sparring match and I challenged him, I'll take responsibility, _sensei_…"

As Iruka gaped at the stubborn Uchiha, not noticing the odd emphasis Sasuke used on sensei to show his disdain of the Chuunin before him. Mizuki just shrugged good-naturedly before saying "Boys will be boys, I think we can let this one slide Iruka, there's no real harm done right? Now, I think it would be best if you escorted Sasuke to the medical office to get those little injuries looked at Iruka, I'll keep watch over the other kids for the rest of lunch." Mizuki insisted, patting his fellow Chuunin on the back with a smile as if indicating *I'll leave it to you*

With an exasperated sigh, Iruka started to lead Sasuke away, the Uchiha walking stiffly as he supressed the pain in his body, refusing to give his opponent any satisfaction of having injured him, even if it didn't occur to him that Naruto really didn't give a damn. With one last glare at Naruto, mentally vowing that he would defeat him next time, Sasuke disappeared from the playground.

Smiling at something nobody would have understood, Mizuki clapped loudly to get all the other students attention, announcing loudly "That's all kids, the shows over, now get back to playing and whatnot, unless you'd rather we cut the lunch break early and get back to classes?"

* * *

><p>As in the academy the students were finally broken up and started to resume their normal patterns for recreation in break time, back in the Hokage Tower Kouta and Sarutobi had just about wrapped up their long discussion.<p>

On the desk before the Hokage, there was a large notebook with several pages worth of notes jotted down that had come up during the two's discussion. After the initial palaver caused from Kouta vehemently trying to *explain* his lack of interest in becoming a Konoha shinobi (involving several bouts of colourful language describing the many ways the Sage was *displeased* by the notion, several innovative *descriptions* of what Sarutobi could do with his proposal and many other interesting displays of lack of co-operation), the Hokage had finally gotten over every reason as to why this had to happen for Naruto's sake, and so the negotiations between the two had begun.

At first, Hiruzen had been worried about what the Sage might say in the negotiations, but after the first few minutes, a wide smile had spread across the old man's features as he realised what Kouta had planned, and so the last two hours had been spent between the two hashing out every possible scenario, plan and necessary condition required to *encourage* Kouta to join Konoha's Shinobi Forces.

The sheets of notes before the Hokage was the result of the negotiations, and Sarutobi had to admit he was both impressed and pleased. While he would have given the Sage any leeway necessary to keep Naruto's mentor in Konoha, it was to combat the Councils interference that Sarutobi had suggested for Kouta to join the Shinobi. However, with Kouta's help, the Hokage now had a viable plan to use against the council.

Sarutobi couldn't help but let out a low chuckle at the thought of the expressions the council members would have when he presented this to them in the next council meet. Kouta, having calmed down immensely from the events earlier, looked back at the Hokage in surprise, asking "Did you think of something I missed?"

The old man just shook his head, explaining "No Kouta-san, I'm just imagining how the old war hawk will look when he hears these terms, just prepare for a lot of arguing when this is presented before the council."

Kouta just smiled enigmatically in response, before returning his gaze out of the window and towards the village. As the Hokage flipped through the notes, giving it one last look over, Kouta softly asked "Are you still adamant about refusing to tell me who his parents are?"

Sarutobi paused his scanning of the notes, sighing softly as he looked back up at the Sage. He already had a feeling that the Sage may have at the least a vague idea of who the boys parentage, but even if Sarutobi could trust Kouta with many things, there were limits of what he would say and he didn't want to imagine how Kouta would react if he knew for sure that Naruto was in fact the son of the late Yondaime Hokage.

So instead, the old man hid his emotion, giving the Sage a penetrating glare as he answered "Even if you have taken it upon yourself to be his Guardian, I will not reveal such information to you." As if to punctuate his stance on the matter, the Hokage flared his considerable Ki once. (1)

Kouta remained indifferent to this display of power, shrugging his shoulders slightly as he replied "So long as you keep your promise, I won't ask again."

The Hokage almost growled at that, almost. One of the many stipulations Kouta had given him was that if Naruto had any inheritance or legacy within Konoha that had been withheld for his protection due to being the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki; that it would be given to him when the boy reached Chuunin rank. Normally Sarutobi would have no such problem with this, in fact that had been his intentions all along for the boy. However, that was taking into account that the average Chuunin of Konoha would have enough experience to gain their rank at 16, and Kakashi's prediction after watching Naruto was that it could take as long as until he was 20.

But that was the predictions before Naruto had left the village. Given that Kouta had been the one to personally train Naruto, Sarutobi had no doubt that Naruto would beat that benchmark by a wide margin, if by some chance he wasn't already of Chuunin rank in terms of strength. However, he had no way of knowing for sure, since Kouta had refused to divulge a detailed description of Naruto's strengths. As such, it was entirely possible the boy would make Chuunin at 13, far before Sarutobi's original plan.

However, he knew Kouta would settle for nothing less than that stipulation, and Sarutobi knew if he didn't agree, that the Sage would simply use that uncanny ability of his to figure out information that is supposed to be top secret with ease. After all, this was the man who figured out the identity of Naruto as the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki by simply having a conversation with the boy. Sarutobi had no doubt that if he was determined; Kouta could uncover the truth on his own, so agreeing to this term was the only way to have some measure of control over the situation.

Then there was the second agreement…

"I still personally don't agree with your other condition though Kouta-san, I think it's still too early…"

The Sage merely shrugged again as Sarutobi glared at his back, answering "Naruto is far smarter than you may think, if he isn't told soon, he will figure it out on his own. It's taken a lot of work to keep him from realising it over the last five years, so I think it's only right he learns about the Kyuubi when he graduates."

"But-!" Sarutobi started to object, rising sharply out of his chair, but he froze when Kouta turned his head sharply, his sky blue irises visible as he regarded Sarutobi without his usual close eyed expression. Once again, the old Hokage had to admire the strength in those blue eyes; the powerful purpose in this man's eyes.

Kouta spoke softly, his voice clear with purpose as he said "He will learn the truth no matter what, so it's better to reveal it at a time of OUR choosing, not when it is too late. And besides…"

With this, Kouta's eyes returned to their almost fully closed expression, that smile gracing his features as he assured "Naruto is stronger than you think, and I have a feeling he'll take the information better than he would have before he left, I made sure of that…"

Sarutobi's eyes widened at the last words, his mouth almost dropping open as he realised what Kouta hinted at. However, he quickly regained control of himself, but was only able to give a forced whisper as he asked "Who…?"

"A rather…interesting young girl, not much older than Naruto actually but that's all I'll say." Kouta replied with a smile, adding "It's not that I don't trust you to tell you more, but you know my policies."

Sarutobi just shook his grizzled head, already feeling the oncoming headache that this information gave him. He gave another glare up at the Sage, but Kouta just ignored it. Sighing again, Sarutobi gave up on the argument. Reaching into his desk, he withdrew an object before tossing it over to the Sage.

Catching it out of mid-air, Kouta looked down at the object, his brow raised in surprise as he looked down at the card in his hands, a card in a pouch with a small silver chain going through the top of it.

"That's a V.I.P pass." The Hokage explained as Kouta flipped the object in his hands. "That should help you get around the village until the next Council Meeting is arranged and I can instate you officially as a citizen and Shinobi of Konoha. I'll also alert the ANBU to your identity so there's no mistakes made."

Kouta laughed softly as he took the chain and put it over his head, leaving the pass dangle down onto the front of his robes as he answered "Thank you, I'd rather avoid being mistaken as a spy after all."

The old man chuckled in turn, adding "Be careful with it, I'll expect it to be returned after the meet, you wouldn't believe how much those passes would be worth in the wrong hands."

Kouta nodded in turn as he headed towards the door, asking "How much loner until the Academy lets Naruto out?"

Sarutobi glanced up at the clock to check the time, before answering "Assuming he hasn't tried to skip classes, I'd say it won't be for at least another three hours. I would advise you use this time to scout around the village, get used to any of the changes since the last time you came here."

With an affirmative nod, Kouta stepped out the door and left Sarutobi leaning tiredly in his chair. The old man was about to reach into his desk to retrieve his pipe again, before his eye caught the massive stack of paperwork that he had put off during the time the Sage had been talking with him. With a loud groan, the Hokage grudgingly got started on the one task he hated worst in the whole village.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter over! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this! Now, if your curious, the item that Naruto used was a specialised sealing object, designed to hold a highly pressurised amount of chakra infused water, kinda alike that scroll Shikamaru used against Kakuzu in Part 2, but much smaller. By timing crushing it with the same time he uses the technique, Naruto can expel the water akin to using the real technique like Darui can. The reason why is because<strong> **Suijinheki**** is a powerful B rank water manipulation technique that normally uses the water in the environment as a shield. However, in the case of extremely skilled and powerful users (Say a Kekkei Genkai user who is subsequently the right hand man of the Raikage, or say the Nidaime Hokage himself) they can use the technique by manipulating the water in either their body (Darui) or by condensing water in the air (Nidaime). However there is no way in hell I would depict Naruto at being near that stage, as such the Mizu orb is a tool created by a certain person to aid Naruto in using the technique where there isn't water for him to adequetly use. I'll go into more depth about Naruto's additional equipment later on.**

**I've also decided to give Kouta some new abilities. Previously I was going to make him a pure Kenjutsu/Taijutsu user, however after reading several other stories i've gotten wrapped up by the idea of Fuinjutsu and I realised that it wouldn't be too far fetched for a well learned Sage to know it. Considering Koutas personality, it would be fitting to make him able to use Fuuinjutsu as well. Another ability he will have will be the Healing Jutsu which Medical Nin use, but in a more rudimentary form (able to heal injuries and wounds up to broken bones, but unable to do complex procedures like Tsunade or Sakura in part 2 could). I've decided that he won't have the ability to use Nature Manipulation techniques, but he will learn Kage Bunshin in a later part of the series since it's practically suicide to go throughout Part 2 without a realistic clone jutsu.**

**Hopefully this won't be God Modding Kouta, but if anybody has any objections to this plan then please let me know, I just wanted to make sure he can at least handle himself since he lacked any jutsu outside of the starter three. It will also make things much more fun to have a Fuuinjutsu-ist from the get go in the story, lets me experiment a little XP.**

**Anyhow, that's all for now, review and subsribe if you like, your feedback gives me energy to keep writing! Seeya all next time!**

**(1) I'm fully aware *Ki* is probably the wrong term, but I wanted to simulate an effect like killing intent without actual killing feeling, just that of power or presence, but I didn't want to use the term Chakra either. Kiai is possibly a more accurate term to use considering the series, but for the sake of ease, unless it's real Killing Intent, I'll use the phrase *Ki*. If you guys know a more accurate phrase, then please share!**


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